Azerbaijan, 2005 — dissident coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 19 October 2005, corresponding to the alleged coup plot against President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan. On 19 October 2005 the authorities announced they had prevented a coup and arrested two powerful cabinet ministers, Economic Development Minister Farhad Aliyev (no relation to the president) and Health Minister Ali Insanov, along with former Finance Minister Fikret Yusifov and other officials. The government alleged they had conspired with the exiled opposition leader Rasul Guliyev, chairman of the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan, to seize control of Baku's airport on his planned 17 October return, overthrow Aliyev, and form a coalition government with the opposition Azadlig bloc, all timed just weeks before the 6 November parliamentary elections.
State television showed jewels and packets of dollars said to have been found at the ministers' homes. Many analysts, however, doubted the plot, viewing it as President Aliyev exploiting Guliyev's abortive return to purge wealthy rivals whose independent power bases were seen as a threat. The 19 October 2005 coding matches the announcement of the foiled plot and the arrests.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
37310192005
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Ilham Aliyev arrested the accused ministers and consolidated power before the 2005 election.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
CSP
Wikipedia
The Times
Xinhua News Agency
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →