Elchin Ilyas oglu Afandiyev ( az, Elçin İlyas oğlu Əfəndiyev) is an Azerbaijani 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 on May 13, 1943 in

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

. 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, 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, 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, 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.

Political career

During Soviet rule, Afandiyev was a deputy in the

Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR ( Azerbaijani: Азәрбаjҹан ССР Али Совети, ''Azərbaycan SSR Ali Soveti''; Russian: Верховный Совет Азербайджа́нской ССР tr. ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Azerba ...

. 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 Education Committee under the President of Azerbaijan.

Awards

Efendiyev was awarded with Istiglal Order for his contributions to the development of

Azerbaijani literature Azerbaijani literature ( az, Azərbaycan ədəbiyyatı) 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 ...

by President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev on May 29, 2003.

References

Writers from Baku Azerbaijani professors 1943 births Living people Azerbaijan Communist Party (1920) politicians Azerbaijani politicians Azerbaijani writers Azerbaijani screenwriters Political office-holders in Azerbaijan Baku State University alumni Recipients of the Istiglal Order {{Azerbaijan-writer-stub

Early years

Political career

Awards

See also

References