Azerbaijan under President Aliyev: a continuation of the past or a new dawn?

The State Service for Mobilization and Conscription of Azerbaijan reports that in the first quarter of 2026, disciplinary measures and organizational actions were taken against 27 employees (including 17 senior officials) for illegal activities and abuse of office. One employee was dismissed on negative grounds, while materials on 16 cases involving 34 individuals were submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office. Despite the fact that many employees of this body have faced criminal liability in recent years, violations appear to persist.

On paper, Azerbaijan is still growing. Its population reached just over 10.25 million in 2025, edging upward by a modest 0.3 percent. But beneath that steady headline figure, a more consequential transformation is unfolding — one that is reshaping families, labor markets and the country’s long-term economic trajectory.

This year in Azerbaijan, spring officially began on March 20 at 13:45 Baku time (UTC+4), when the spring equinox occurred, marking the arrival of the Novruz holiday.

In the hills of Khojavend on March 16th, officials from Azerbaijan’s presidential administration gathered for another meeting of the Coordination Headquarters overseeing the reconstruction of territories recaptured after decades of Armenian control. The session, chaired by Samir Nuriyev, head of the presidential administration, was one of many bureaucratic rituals underpinning one of the most ambitious state projects in the South Caucasus: the “Great Return” of displaced Azerbaijanis to Karabakh.