Former Communist boss Geidar Aliev took power in the embattled republic of Azerbaijan on Friday after the elected president was driven from office by a military revolt.
President Abulfaz Elcibey fled before dawn to his hometown of Ordubat in Azerbaijan's remote border region of Nakhichevan, said Aliev, who was appointed parliament speaker just this week in a meteoric return to power.Scores of government soldiers stood guard at the parliament building in Baku, backed by at least two armored personnel carriers.
Elcibey's flight further destabilized the Caucasus region, which since 1988 has been torn by ethnic conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in neighboring Georgia and in the mountains along Russia's southern border between the Black and Caspian seas.
"I have taken rule into my hands," Aliev said in an television address. He claimed to have El-ci-bey's backing.
"Elcibey is still our president," Aliev told lawmakers after speaking with Elcibey by telephone. "He told me, `I trust you . . . to rule while I'm gone' and said he would come back when the situation stabilizes."
But Elcibey's supporters said the president did not submit his resignation and did not transfer power to Aliev.
Aliev appeared to have the backing of opposition leader Rahim Gaziyev, who has demanded El-ci-bey's removal.
Elcibey's resignation also was demanded by rebel commander Surat Huseynov, a former army colonel whose seizure of about half of Azerbaijani territory in the past two weeks triggered the government crisis.
If Aliev remained in charge, Azerbaijan would join the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Georgia and Tajikistan in replacing nationalist leaders with former Communists, some of whom opposed the breakup of the Soviet Union.