Mehriban Aliyeva

Mehriban Aliyeva (Azerbaijani: Mehriban Arif qızı Əliyeva; born 26 August 1964) is the Vice President and First Lady of Azerbaijan, the head of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, the chairman of Azerbaijani Culture Friends Foundation, the President of Azerbaijani Gymnastics Federation, the goodwill ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO.

Mehriban Aliyeva (née Pashayeva) was born in Baku. Her grandfather was noted Iranian-born Azerbaijani writer Mir Jalal Pashayev. Her uncle Hafiz Pashayev was Azerbaijan's first Ambassador to the United States. Aliyeva's father Arif Pashayev is Rector of the National Aviation Academy in Baku, and her mother, Aida Imanguliyeva (1939–1992) was a prominent philologist and Arabist.

Mehriban Aliyeva finished secondary school in 1981 and married Ilham Aliyev, the son of Heydar Aliyev, in Baku on 22 December 1983. She continued her studies, in which she excelled, at the Azerbaijan Medical University and later at the Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy, from which she graduated in 1988. From 1988–92, Mehriban Aliyeva worked at the State Research Institute of Eye Diseases of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Moscow, which was led by Dr. Mikhail Krasnov. Two articles in The Times in 2005 described her as a "qualified physician" and "former eye doctor."

The Aliyevs have two daughters, Leyla (born 3 July 1984) and Arzu (born 23 January 1987) and a son Heydar (born 2 August 1997). Leyla is the editor of Baku magazine, published by Azerbaijani Russian businessman Aras Agalarov, and was married to his son Emin Agalarov.

In 1995, she established the Azerbaijani Culture Friends Foundation. In 1996, with financial support from Chevron, the foundation gave lifetime awards to six representatives of Azerbaijani art and culture. The foundation also sponsored performances in Baku of music by Antonio Vivaldi and George Gershwin.

After the death of her father-in-law Heydar Aliyev in 2003, Aliyeva established, in 2004, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, which focuses on studying and holding events to promote Heydar Aliyev's political ideology. In Azerbaijan, according to a recent news article, "The HAF builds more schools than Azerbaijan's Ministry of Education, more hospitals than the Ministry of Health, and conducts more cultural events than the Ministry of Culture." The Heydar Aliyev Foundation also sponsors projects outside Azerbaijan, including helping to finance renovations at the Louvre Museum, Palace of Versailles, and Strasbourg Cathedral.

In 2004, Mehriban Aliyeva became a designated UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, to honor her safeguarding of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan and promoting its oral and musical traditions.

In 24 November 2006, Aliyeva was awarded the title of Goodwill Ambassador of ISESCO for her attention to the children in need and help to improve their living conditions and education.

In Azerbaijan's 2005 parliamentary elections, she was elected to the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. She had previously broken with tradition to help campaign for her husband in 2003, when he ran for President of Azerbaijan. The Sunday Times, writing in 2005 about Aliyeva's decision to run for the Azerbaijani parliament, described her as already wielding "considerable influence," and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation as "a powerful and wealthy institution set up to safeguard the late president’s legacy and support a number of educational and charitable projects."

On 21 February 2017 she was appointed Vice President of Azerbaijan, an office that was created through a constitutional referendum in 2016. On 6 March 2017 Central Election Commission terminated Mehriban Aliyeva's deputy mandate per her request.

Mehriban Aliyeva, as the the 1st Vice President of Azerbaijan, made her official visit to France French President François Hollande during dinner party hosted for high officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan, "our countries came closer first of all thanks to trading and cultural relations".

National honours and medals

•  Azerbaijan – Heydar Aliyev Order
•  Azerbaijan – The Person of 2005
•  Azerbaijan – Woman of Year (2005)
•  Azerbaijan – The Person of 2015

Foreign honours

•  France – Legion of Honour
•  Kuwait – Honorary Diploma of the State of Kuwait
•  Pakistan – Hilal-e-Pakistan
•  Poland – Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland
•  Serbia – Sreten Order

• UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador
• Goodwill Ambassador of ISESCO
• United Nations Population Fund's diploma
• World Health Organization prize
• UNESCO Mozart Medal

Honorary degrees

•  Bulgaria – Honorary doctor of the Veliko Tarnovo University
•  Russia – Honorary Professor of the I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University
•  Israel – Honorary doctor of the Israel Medical Academy