Is Prime Minister Ali Asadov the Next Target? What is Going on Behind the Scenes with His Business Empire

Ali Asadov

There has been a lot of talk in the news about Prime Minister Ali Asadov in Azerbaijan. On April 17 some news websites that support the government like Qafqazinfo started saying that Prime Minister Ali Asadov has a business empire. They said he owns a lot of buildings, restaurants and even a hotel in the capital city. They also said that Prime Minister Ali Asadov uses some of his journalists to leak secret information from meetings to hurt his political enemies or to take attention away from what he is doing.

This is news because in Azerbaijan, the media that supports the government usually does not talk about how rich the high-ranking officials are unless they are about to get fired. In the past when the government wanted to get rid of someone they would first make their wealth public. For example this happened to Ramiz Mehdiyev, who used to be in charge of the Presidential Administration. Elman Fattah, who works at the Caspian Research and Analysis Center thinks that these news stories can only happen if the Presidential Administration says it is okay. He says this does not mean Prime Minister Ali Asadov will get fired away but it is a warning that could lead to him losing power or getting a new job.

Prime Minister Ali Asadov has been working with President Ilham Aliyev since 1998. He started as an advisor and then became the Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration before becoming Prime Minister in 2019. At the time he and his friend Azer Asgarov started building a big business network. Azer Asgarov is like a manager for Prime Minister Ali Asadovs businesses. One of their companies AZ Import, which is now called Azman Construction has won a lot of government contracts for projects. Even though Azer Asgarov said that Prime Minister Ali Asadov does not own the company the companys address is the same as where Prime Minister Ali Asadov and Azer Asgarov live.

By 2017 Prime Minister Ali Asadov and Azer Asgarov started a company called AZMAN Holding. This company has smaller companies under it like Alians Development, which builds things, Sapphire Hotels Group, which runs hotels and City Service Company, which runs a lot of fancy restaurants. Prime Minister Ali Asadovs business empire even reaches to Germany, where they have companies like Azmann GmbH and AZ-Import GmbH. These companies do things like buy and sell estate, precious metals and food.

The interesting thing about all of this is how Prime Minister Ali Asadovs businesses are connected to the businesses of President Ilham Aliyevs family. For example one of Prime Minister Ali Asadovs companies Chinara is connected to a company called Foton LLC, which is also connected to Pasha Holding. This shows that Prime Minister Ali Asadovs private businesses are closely tied to the people who have the power in the country.

A lot of people in Azerbaijan are unhappy because they see a difference between what the government says and what it does. President Ilham Aliyev often talks about how important it's to be modest and to stop corruption but critics say that Prime Minister Ali Asadov is a perfect example of how some government officials get rich while they are in power. It also does not help that Prime Minister Ali Asadovs son, Hidayat Asadov has a ranking job in the department that is supposed to fight corruption. Many people think that this is a problem and that it shows how the government is not transparent or accountable. The question, on everyones mind is whether these news stories mean that Prime Minister Ali Asadov will lose his job or if this is a warning.