Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev turned 49 on Friday. Citizens marked the date with solemn celebrations and world leaders extended their congratulations to the president.

The Russian and Georgian leaders phoned President Aliyev to congratulate him on this occasion. Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Mikheil Saakashvili wished their Azerbaijani counterpart further success in his presidency and strong health, Aliyev’s press service said.

The parties termed the year 2010 as successful for the development of Azerbaijan’s relations with Russia and Georgia, expressing confidence that these relations will continue to expand.

Congratulatory messages also came from the presidents of Central Asian states Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, as well as the Latvian and Bulgarian leaders.

President Aliyev's birthday was celebrated with a 49-meter-long cake in Ganja, Azerbaijan's second-largest city. The 12-ton cake, which had been cooked over one month, was sliced in a central square of Ganja and distributed among local residents.

The cake required 2 tons of flour, 29,000 eggs, 350 liters of milk, 350 kg of dry milk, up to 400 kg of walnut kernels, 370 kg of butter, as well as chocolate, cream, caramel and other products. The cake reflects Azerbaijan’s coat of arms, as well as historical and contemporary architectural monuments of Ganja. The amount of funds spent to prepare the cake is not reported.

Ganja has marked Aliyev's birthday for the past four years with huge cakes. Last year's 48-meter cake weighed 11 tons and broke European records for the largest cake.

Ilham Aliyev was born on December 24, 1961 in Baku. He attended a secondary school in Baku from 1967 till 1977. In 1977, he was admitted to the Moscow State University of International Relations (MSUIR). In 1982, upon his graduation, Mr. Aliyev had continued his education as a postgraduate student in MSUIR. In 1985, he finalized his research and received a PhD degree in history. In 1985-1990, he gave lectures at MSUIR.

From 1991 to 1994, he led a group of private industrial-commercial enterprises.

In 1994-2003, he was the vise-president, and later the first vise-president of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR. He has been actively involved in the implementation of the oil strategy founded by his father, Azerbaijan’s late national leader, former President Heydar Aliyev.

He is an author of numerous research works on geopolitical aspects of Azerbaijan’s oil strategy. He holds a degree of doctor of political sciences.

In 1995 and 2000, he was twice elected to the Milli Majlis (Parliament). In 2003, he stopped his activity as a member of parliament due to his appointment to the post of Prime Minister.

He has been elected deputy chairman of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party in 1999, first deputy chairman in 2001, and the chairman of the party in 2005.

From 2001 to 2003, he headed the Azerbaijani parliamentary delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). In January 2003, he was elected as deputy chairman of PACE and a member of a PACE bureau.

In October 2003, Aliyev was elected as president of Azerbaijan. More than 76% of voters supported his candidacy during the elections.

Aliyev was elected for the second term in office, after gaining 88% of votes in the elections held in October 2008.

Aliyev is fluent in Azerbaijani, English, Russian, French, and Turkish.

He is married, has three children and two grandchildren.