Heydar Aliyev Foundation

The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is an Azerbaijani charity that funds cultural and development projects,[609] [608] including the construction of several schools, hospitals, and art galleries.[610] Founded in 2004,[609] the foundation’s president is Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva,[609] and Leyla Aliyeva is its vice president.[607]

The organization has been accused of using cultural soft power in a bid to whitewash Azerbaijan’s reputation abroad.[602] [603] In particular, it has been accused of advancing Baku’s official line on Nagorno-Karabakh,[602] [604] a war-torn region in western Azerbaijan that was occupied by ethnic Armenians for several decades until Azerbaijan retook it in 2023, sparking a mass exodus.[605]

The foundation does not declare the source of its funding, but it is widely assumed to be Azerbaijan’s oil revenues, according to a leaked US diplomatic cable.[604] There are also anecdotal reports of Azerbaijani officials being compelled to contribute to the foundation in exchange for political protection.[604] The foundation has accounts at the International Bank of Azerbaijan (IBA),[611] a state-controlled bank that has featured in a high-profile embezzlement case and has been implicated in large and suspicious overseas transfers.[606] [576]