Dadash Rzayev

Dadash Garib oghlu Rzayev (22 December 1935 – 27 May 2024) was an Azerbaijani major general and politician who was Minister of Defense of Azerbaijan from February to June 1993, and was the Chairman of Confederation of Azerbaijani Officers in Reserve. His active service in the army lasted for 40 years, 37 of which were in the Airborne Troops.

Early life Rzayev was born in 1935 in Delimammadli city of Goranboy District, Azerbaijan. He never planned a military career but always wanted to be a pilot. In 1953, he was enrolled at Azerbaijan Technical University. A year later his studies were interrupted and he was conscripted to military service at Soviet Airborne Troops stationed in Belarus for a period of three years. After military quarantine, he was directed to confidential state Officers School in isolated location in Kazakhstan for a period of one year. After completion of his course, he returned to the military service. Six months before completion of his service, he was sent to continue his military education at School of Airborne Troops. He graduated from the school in 1959. While a cadet he has been awarded the Order of the Red Star for excellence in his studies. During the Soviet–Afghan War, he supervised 4 tabors. Rzayev was the author of the military oath of allegiance which was taken by him and the first unit of the independent Azerbaijani Army known as The First tabor based on unit 18110 of the Soviet Army, on 8 December 1991 in the Martyrs' Alley. Once Barshadly became the Chief of General Staff of Azerbaijani Armed Forces, he ordered him to create northwestern military corpus. Rzayev took the assignment and created a 12,000 men corpus in the Tovuz region. During the Karabakh conflict, he personally led the operation which captured the village of Bashkend. On 21 February 1993, he was appointed Minister of Defense by President Abulfaz Elchibey. and on 16 July 1993 he was accused in the report of the investigative commission of the parliament of being a part to skirmishes during the Ganja revolt of June 1993 and was removed from the position of Minister of Defense. He retired from active service in the army in 1995.

Later years Confederation of Officers in Reserve Rzayev was the Chairman of Confederation of Azerbaijani Officers in Reserve. The organization has branches in 65 regions of Azerbaijan. He was also a proponent of aligning the Azerbaijani army according to NATO standards.

Guinness world records In 2009, Rzayev made headlines after parachuting from an airplane at the age of 74. This was his 1506th time on parachute. He first did it on 16 January 1955 as a cadet.

Death Rzayev died on 27 May 2024, at the age of 88. He was buried in the Second Martyrs' Lane in Baku.