Spaces:
Running
on
Zero
Running
on
Zero
The family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev leads a charmed, glamorous life, thanks in part to financial interests in almost every sector of the economy. | |
His wife, Mehriban, comes from the privileged and powerful Pashayev family that owns banks, insurance and construction companies, | |
a television station and a line of cosmetics. She has led the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Azerbaijan's pre-eminent charity behind the construction of schools, | |
hospitals and the country's major sports complex. Their eldest daughter, Leyla, editor of Baku magazine, and her sister, Arzu, | |
have financial stakes in a firm that won rights to mine for gold in the western village of Chovdar and Azerfon, the country's largest mobile phone business. | |
Arzu is also a significant shareholder in SW Holding, which controls nearly every operation related to Azerbaijan Airlines (“Azal”), from meals to airport taxis. | |
Both sisters and brother Heydar own property in Dubai valued at roughly $75 million in 2010; | |
Heydar is the legal owner of nine luxury mansions in Dubai purchased for some $44 million. | |