Surat Huseynov

Surat Davud oghlu Huseynov (; 12 February 1959 – 31 July 2023) was an Azerbaijani military officer and politician who served as Prime Minister after ousting Azerbaijan President Abulfaz Elchibey in the 1993 Azerbaijan military coup.

Huseynov, who had enriched himself through Soviet Azerbaijan's black market, He took the rank of colonel and used his money to attract forces under his command. He subsequently marched on Baku, demanding the resignation of Elchibey and the entire Azerbaijan government. Amid this turmoil, Azerbaijan lost enormous swaths of territory to Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and had effectively lost the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Prior to the war After serving in the army in 1977–1979 and later graduating from the Leninabad Technological Institute, Surat Huseynov worked as a plumber, a warehouse employee and an assistant operator at the Kirovabad Textile Factory. In 1983–1984 he resided in Novopavlovsk, Russian SFSR. For the next two years he worked as a wool sorter at a storing department in Shaki, Azerbaijan.

In 1986 he became senior inspector of a textile factory in Yevlakh and was promoted to manager just before the war. He was considered one of key figures in Soviet Azerbaijan's black market

First Nagorno-Karabakh War At the dawn of the conflict in 1990, Huseynov formed an armed group supported by the local Soviet Ground Forces division. He has been reported to have originated the group in Yevlakh. In the summer of 1992, his detachment took part in the Azerbaijani offensive which led to the capture of Mardakert on 4 July 1992. Two days prior to that President Abulfaz Elchibey appointed Huseynov his official representative in Nagorno-Karabakh and the neighbouring regions. In winter 1992–1993, when at the time Azerbaijani Minister of Defence Rahim Gaziyev ordered troops out of Haterk (a village near Mardakert), Huseynov relocated his detachments to Ganja and refused to disband them. Elchibey responded by removing Huseynov from the government. At the end of May 1993 the last sub-units of the 104th Division left Azerbaijan, eventually to be relocated to Ulyanovsk in Russia, but handed over all their arms and military equipment to Huseynov.

Ganja revolt The Popular Front of Azerbaijan blamed Huseynov for treason and for intentionally ceding the villages around Mardakert to Armenians (allowing their advance into Kalbajar region) to benefit Russian geopolitical interests in the region.

Release and death In 2004, under pressure from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, President Ilham Aliyev pardoned him. Huseynov was released and later lived a secluded life in the town of Buzovna, near Baku.

On 31 July 2023, Huseynov, who was suffering from stomach and kidney problems, travelled to Istanbul, Turkey on a flight from Moscow, to seek medical treatment. He died from gastrointestinal bleeding upon landing at Istanbul Airport at the age of 64.