Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (born in Baku on December 24, 1961) is marking the 51st birthday, APA reports.
Ilham Aliyev left school in 1977 and entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He graduated in 1982, became a PhD in History in 1985 and was a teacher at his institute for 5 years.
Aliyev became the Vice President of the State oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic (SOCAR) in 1994 – August 2003. He was an MP in 1995-2001. He headed an Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation to the PACE in 2001-2003, became the deputy chairman of PACE in January 2003 and a Bureau member. He became the Azerbaijani Prime Minister in 2003.
Ilham Aliyev became the Azerbaijani President on October 15, 2003, inaugurated on October 31. He got 88% of vote during re-election on October 15, 2008.
He became the head of the National Olympic Committee in 1997.
Aliyev speaks Azerbaijani, Russian, English, French and Turkish languages. He has a wife, three children and two grandchildren.
Presidents Vladimir Putin (Russia), Nursultan Nazarbayev (Kazakhstan), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Almazbek Atambayev (Kyrgyzstan) and Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov (Turkmenistan) have congratulated Ilham Aliyev.
