# Ilham Aliyev President of Azerbaijan since 2003, having inherited power from his father Heydar Aliyev; a dynastic, oil-funded autocracy that retook Nagorno-Karabakh by force in 2023. > [!info] Stub — created 2026-06-21 as a link target for [[Dictators in World History Hub]]. Expand with biography, path to power, and right-wing reception. ## See Also - [[Azerbaijan]] — the country page - [[Post-Soviet States]] - [[Nikol Pashinyan]] — his counterpart in the 2020 ceasefire and the 2025 White House summit