Hikmet Hajiyev

Hajiyev was born in 1979 in Ganja (then known as Kirovabad) and graduated from Secondary School No. 24. He graduated from the Faculty of International Relations and International Law in Baku State University. He also holds a master's degree from NATO's Defense College, the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, and Université libre de Bruxelles. Hajiyev has worked in the system of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 2000. In different years, he worked at Azerbaijani representative offices in NATO, Kuwait, and Egypt. From 2014 to 2018, Hajiyev served as the head of the Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1] On 9 July 2018, he was awarded the Medal for Distinguished Service in Diplomatic Service, and a year later, he was awarded the Order of Merit for Service to the Fatherland of the 2nd degree.[2][3] He speaks Russian, Turkish, English and French.

On 18 September 2018, he was appointed Deputy Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration. Later that November, he became the head of this department[4] and on 29 November 2019, he became an official assistant to the President.[5] Some circles in Azerbaijan consider Hajiyev to be a “shadow foreign minister”, and often attribute the dismissal of Foreign Minister Elmad Mammadyarov as a result of a struggle between him and Hajiyev. Many also consider Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who has no experience with diplomacy, as someone who essentially follows Hajiyev’s orders, with Hajiyev's role often being considered to be a stepping stone for his potential appointment of Foreign Minister.[6] When describing his role in the administration during the July 2020 Armenian–Azerbaijani clashes, President Aliyev said that he is "speaking with my assistant Hikmet Hajiyev probably 10 times a day".[7]

On 10 May 2018, two days after the Velvet Revolution in Armenia, Hajiyev said he hoped that “Armenia’s new leadership will not make the mistakes of its predecessors and pursue a policy of normalizing relations with neighbors.” Two months later, described the decision of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to send his son Ashot to military service as a “political show.”

He was notably active during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, often playing a leading role in conveying the foreign policy goals of the administration. He praised the effectiveness of the IAI Harop in the conflict.[8] Paul Ronzheimer, the deputy editor-in-chief and correspondent of Bild, tweeted that Aliyev agreed to be interviewed by the newspaper, and that he changed his mind suddenly. Hajiyev then responded with a tweet, calling his statement unprofessional and stating that Aliyev preferred to give interviews to professional rather than the yellow press.[9]