Elchin Ilyas oglu Afandiyev () is an

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

i writer, professor and politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2018.

Early years

Afandiyev was born to the family of famous Azerbaijani writer

Ilyas Afandiyev Ilyas Muhammad oglu Afandiyev () was an Azerbaijani and Soviet writer, member of Azerbaijan Union of Writers (1940), Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan (1960), laureate of the State Prize of Azerbaijan (1972)

on 13 May 1943 in

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

. Since his early childhood, Elchin Afandiyev was surrounded by literature and an academic environment. Azerbaijani folklore and world literature played a significant role in Afandiyev's future career. He wrote his first novel when he was 16 years old, which was published in ''Azərbaycan gəncləri'' (''Azerbaijani Youth'') magazine in 1959. He completed his secondary education in 1960 and studied at

Baku State University Baku State University (BSU) (BDU; ) is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Established on 1 September 1919 by the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the university started with faculties of history and philology, physics ...

, graduating in 1965 with a degree in philology. In 1968, he completed his post-graduate studies at the Nizami Institute of the

Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) (, located in Baku, is the main state research organization and the primary body that conducts research and coordinates activities in the fields of science and social sciences in Azerbaijan. It was ...

, writing a 500-page dissertation. In 1965, he published a collection of novels called ''Min gecədən biri'' (''One of thousand nights''). In the following years, nearly 100 books of Afandiyev were translated and published in English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Arabic,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

, Mandarin, Czech, Slovak, Polish, Croatian, Georgian, Lithuanian, Moldovan, Turkmen, Uzbek, Kazakh, Tajik, Serbian and other languages. There have been about five million copies sold worldwide. Afandiyev’s play, ''Citizens of Hell'', premiered in London in 2013.

Political career

During Soviet rule, Afandiyev was a deputy in the

Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR, later renamed as the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan Republic from 1991 until its abolition in 1995, was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the Azerbaijan SSR, and later the Republic ...

. Since 1993, he has served as Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan. As a Deputy Prime Minister, he supervises various sectors of government activity such as sports and cultural relations. He has also chaired the ''Vətən'' cultural organization, which focuses on cultural ties with other countries. He is also a member of several government committees and is a member of the Education Committee under the

President of Azerbaijan The president of the Republic of Azerbaijan is the head of state of the Azerbaijan, Republic of Azerbaijan. The Constitution of Azerbaijan, Constitution states that the president is the embodiment of Executive (government), executive power, co ...

Awards

Efendiyev was awarded with

Istiglal Order Istiglal Order (), is the highest supreme order of the Republic of Azerbaijan, along with Heydar Aliyev Order. presented by the president of the Republic of Azerbaijan. ''Istiglal'' translates to Sovereignty in Azerbaijani. History and statu ...

for his contributions to the development of

Azerbaijani literature Azerbaijani literature (, ) is written in Azerbaijani, a Turkic language, which is the official state language of the Republic of Azerbaijan, where the North Azerbaijani variety is spoken. It is also natively spoken in Iran, where the Sout ...

Heydar Aliyev Heydar Alirza oghlu Aliyev (10 May 1923 – 12 December 2003) was an Azerbaijani politician who was a Soviet party boss in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic from 1969 to 1982, and the third president of Azerbaijan from October 1993 to ...

on 29 May 2003.

References

Writers from Baku 1943 births Living people Azerbaijan Communist Party (1920) politicians Deputy prime ministers of Azerbaijan Azerbaijani writers Azerbaijani screenwriters Baku State University alumni Recipients of the Istiglal Order {{Azerbaijan-writer-stub

Early years

Political career

Awards

See also

References