Abdurrahman Vazirov Khalil oglu (Azerbaijani: Əbdürrəhman Xəlil oğlu Vəzirov; 26 May 1930 – 10 January 2022) was the 13th First Secretary of the Azerbaijan Communist Party and the leader of the Azerbaijan SSR from 1988 till January 1990.
Vazirov was appointed by Kremlin to lead Soviet Azerbaijan in May 1988, amidst the heating of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Vazirov replaced Kamran Baghirov, whose dismissal came along with similar dismissal of Karen Demirchyan and appointment of Suren Harutyunyan as the leader of the Armenian SSR.
[2] He was neither a typical political boss nor a local nationalist; he could not even speak fluent Azerbaijani,[3] despite being born in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.
[contradictory][citation needed] Vazirov shared Mikhail Gorbachev's internationalist values and aspirations for political reform but he could not cope effectively with the complex political situation in Azerbaijan.