Baku Oil Dynasty Vying With Iran Shaken by Facebook Rallies
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After rioters in Azerbaijan burned down a hotel owned by a son of one of President Ilham Aliyev’s ministers, the government blamed the violence on “destructive forces” -- including presidential challenger Ilgar Mammadov.
Mammadov, selected today as the Republican Alternative movement’s candidate for the October contest, says the real culprit is the Aliyev dynasty itself, which has run the former Soviet oil province of 9.3 million mainly Shiite Muslims for most of the past 44 years.