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WikiLeaks: Azerbaijan: ‘The Minister of Everything Significant’ and His Son

A U.S. Embassy cable from Baku, leaked by WikiLeaks, gives a report on Azerbaijan’s Heydarov family, “the second most powerful commercial family in Azerbaijan,” noting the lobby efforts of Tale Heydarov, the head of the European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), especially in regards to Nagorno-Karabagh.

According to the cable, the Heydarov family’s most powerful member is Kamaladdin Heydarov, who has been the head of the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES), otherwise known as “The Ministry of Everything Significant,” since 2006.  “Observers have said he might be even more powerful than the President himself.”

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Nanore Barsoumian

Nanore Barsoumian is the Investigations Editor at The Armenian Weekly and a Boston-based writer and researcher. She is also a research fellow at New York University’s Global Institute for Advanced Studies, where she works on the Armenian Genocide Denial project, focusing on denial at the United Nations. She previously served as editor of The Armenian Weekly (2014–2016) and assistant editor (2010–2014), reporting from Armenia, Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh, Javakhk and Turkey. Her writing covers politics, books and human rights, and her scholarly work examines genocide memorialization and denial. She holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and English and a master’s degree in conflict resolution. Her research appears in After the Ottomans: Genocide’s Long Shadow and Armenian Resilience (I.B. Tauris, 2023). She is currently working on her debut novel exploring themes of belonging and self-invention. Find her on social media or at www.nanorebarsoumian.com.
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