Research carried out by Radio Liberty: In Azerbaijan ministers are aging in their seats, holding their posts for 15-20 years
Azerbaijani officials are aging in their seats, holding their posts for 15-20 years, reads an article published in the Azerbaijani service of "Radio Liberty". As stated in the article the record for holding the office in Azerbaijan is set by the 78-year-old Prime Minister Artur Rasizade, who is heading the government of the republic for 17 years.
State Statistics Committee Chairman Arif Veliyev is also a record-holder for length of service at the same post. He runs the affairs of the country for 20 years already.
Another famous person rightly holds his place on this list; it is the head of the presidential administration Ramiz Mehdiyev. The 75-year-old Mehdiyev is working on this position for 18 years already.
52 years old President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev leads the country for 10 years already. The interior minister, 65-year-old Ramil Usubov, too "Grew old" on his seat. He is at the office of republic’s first police officer for 18 years exactly.
"Radio Liberty" has calculated the age and the continuous tenure on the post of 44 senior government officials in Azerbaijan. All the ministers, chairmen of committees, the leading staff of the presidential administration and the parliament were considered.
Thus, in 21 out of 44 people are in office for more than 10 years. State Statistics Committee Chairman Arif Veliyev Longer is leading in the list. He is at the office for 20 years. Besides that, 11 Azerbaijani ministers work in their office for more than 15 years. Ramil Usubov, the Minister of Internal Affairs (19 years) is the second and follows Arif Valiyev, then come the minister of emergency situations Kemaleddin Heydarov (19 years counted also the years when he served as chairman of the Customs Committee), the Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev (19 years counted also the years when he held the post of the Minister of youth and Sport).
Education Minister Misir Mardanov, the Chairman of the State Committee for Refugees and IDPs Ali Hasanov hold office for 15 years. Safar Abiyev holds the office of the Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan for more than 18 years.
There are only two members in the government that have little experience in this team and work in their position less than 5 years. These are the head of the State Migration Service of Azerbaijan Firudin Nabiyev (only 1 year) and Director of State Agency on Alternative and Renewable Energy Sources of Azerbaijan Akim Badalov (3 years).
As a result of the research it was revealed that the average age of the Azerbaijani leaders is 58.1 years. Statistics Committee says that the average age of the citizen of Azerbaijan is 31 years. That is, the government is double times elder the ordinary citizens. There is no 30 years old official at the government of Azerbaijan. Only 8 out of 44 officers are under the age of 40 to 50. The Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov is 49 years old. 18 out of 44 high-level officials are over 60, four of them are over 70. The youngest of the administrative officials’ of the Republic is the Executive Director at State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, he is 41.