Ilham Aliyev – President of Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan is about as far East as you can go and still be eligible for the Eurovision Song Contest, unless Russia fields an act from the other side of Lake Baikal. Until they won this garish pop pageant, many Europeans scarcely knew of its existence.
Ilham Aliyev is the president of Azerbaijan, and as such it is he who steps forward in his underpants. In some circles, Aliyev is considered a dictator, the holder of absolute power. Protests similar to those in Libya and Egypt have occurred in Azerbaijan, but as in so many other countries, the subsequent security crackdown has largely gone unreported in the west. Let us hope that Aliyev’s appearance here, in his underpants, marks the beginning of other concessions.
We shall return later to consider the majority-Armenian territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, a scarcely recognised Republic within Azerbaijan with its own presidential democracy, and its own underpants.
Until then, Ilham Aliyev joins other heads of state in states of undress here.
