On 13 February, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliev abolished the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Communication and High Technologies, instead merging them into one ‘super ministry’.

The new minister is 40-year-old Ramin Guluzade. A graduate of the State University of Economics, he became widely known to the Azeri public only in November 2015 when Aliev appointed him as deputy minister of communication and high technologies. In January 2016 he took the helm of the ministry and has been serving in government since then. As to his prior professional background, it is only known that Guluzade worked at the Heydar Aliev Foundation, chaired by the First Lady Mehriban Alieva from 2005-15. He is considered a protégé of the powerful Pashaev clan, of which Alieva (nee Pashaeva) is a member.

By merging two ministries into one, Aliev let go one of his closest advisers, Zia Mamedov (b.1952), who had been minister of transport since 2002. Mamedov started his career in 1971 as an assistant mechanic at a railway station, later worked as a locomotive driver, and was the secretary of a Communist Party affiliated trade union in 1980–81. He graduated from the Rostov Institute of Railway Transport Engineers in Russia in 1988. After working in several different jobs within Azerbaijan’s railway sector, Mamedov became the deputy head of Azeri Railways in 1993. Three years later he was appointed CEO of the state monopoly, until his appointment as transport minister.

Over time, Mamedov became one of the richest men in Azerbaijan, enjoying the full support of former president Heydar Aliev (1993–2003) and subsequently his son Ilham. His own son, Anar Mamedov, is known throughout Azerbaijan as the nominal owner of diverse businesses, including a construction joint venture company with Donald Trump. When Trump was elected US president, the Trump Organisation formally ended the relationship with the Mamedovs and removed them from its website.

This is an excerpt from an article in our Caspian Focus publication.