Ayaz Niyazi oghlu Mutallibov[b] (12 May 1938 – 27 March 2022[1][2]) was an Azerbaijani politician who served as the first president of Azerbaijan.

[3] Mutallibov was born on 12 May 1938, in Baku to the family of a physician and later World War II veteran, Niyazi Ashraf oghlu Mutallibov (Azerbaijani: Niyazi Əşrəf oğlu Mütəllibov), and gynaecologist Kubra Mutallibova (died in 1988).

[4] In 1977, he was appointed the Second Secretary of Azerbaijan Communist Party Committee in the Narimanov District of Baku.

He was promoted to the republic's cabinet in 1979 as he assumed the post of Minister of Local Industry of Azerbaijan SSR.

On 19 August 1991, according to some reports, while on a visit to Tehran, Mutalibov made a statement in support of the Soviet coup attempt of 1991.

[3] After pressure from the Popular Front, Mutallibov established a parliament where power was divided between opposition figures and the communist old guard.

[8] A day later, armed forces led by the Azerbaijan Popular Front under the command of Police Colonel Isgandar Hamidov, took control of the offices of the Parliament of Azerbaijan and Azerbaijani State Radio and Television, thereby deposing Mutallibov, who left for Moscow.

[11] in July 2012, Mutallibov returned from exile with the permission of President Ilham Aliyev to attend his son's funeral.

In an exclusive interview with Express Gazeta, Mutalibov spoke about his youthful hobbies, saying he loved to listen to jazz, Elvis Presley, and The Beatles, for which he was often criticized by a Komsomol newspaper.