On March 18, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva inspected the restoration work on private homes and infrastructure in the village of Khanoba in the Khojavend District, AzerNEWS reports.
Day: March 18, 2026
Blackmail of Azerbaijan president’s family
The State Security Service said it had carried out an operation in connection with an alleged attempt to blackmail the family of President Ilham Aliyev, and reported the detention of an Azerbaijani citizen identified as F.S.
According to a video released by the broadcaster İctimai TV, a person believed to be abroad attempted to contact senior Azerbaijani officials using foreign phone numbers and email addresses. He is said to have demanded €5m from the family in exchange for not publishing intimate material allegedly involving Alena Aliyeva, the wife of the president’s son, Heydar Aliyev.
Officials say a criminal case has been opened. F.S. was detained during the operation and, according to the authorities, admitted guilt during the investigation. They added that he had “provided details”, although these have not been fully disclosed in publicly available materials.
In the released footage and accompanying report, a masked individual claims that bloggers “received the video from certain individuals”, but their identities are not revealed. The suspect’s full name and face have also not been disclosed, as no court ruling has yet been issued.
Context and Mehman Huseynov’s position
Alena Aliyeva is the wife of Heydar Aliyev, the son of President Ilham Aliyev. According to publicly available sources, the couple married on 25 November 2022. The same sources note that in recent years Alena Aliyeva has appeared at a number of public events and took part in voting alongside the president’s family in 2024.
A new wave of controversy began earlier this year. In a video broadcast by İctimai TV, authorities allege that bloggers living abroad — including Mehman Huseynov, Emin Huseynov and Gabil Mammadov — had been spreading “defamatory information” about Alena Aliyeva. It is also claimed that in one livestream Mehman Huseynov showed what the report described as “edited video materials”.
Mehman Huseynov’s public profile has further intensified the polarisation surrounding the case. He is currently living in exile and is known as a blogger and activist critical of the authorities. He has previously run as a candidate in parliamentary and municipal elections.
Mehman Huseynov was detained between 2017 and 2019. At the time, international organisations issued statements regarding his case and the conditions of his detention.
For opposition-leaning audiences, the main focus of attention remains publications on Mehman Huseynov’s YouTube channel.
In recent months, several videos on the topics of “Alena Aliyeva” and “Heydar Aliyev” have been published, some of which have attracted hundreds of thousands of views. One video on Mehman Huseynov’s channel, titled “Younger Heydar and Alena Aliyeva: a new luxury villa!”, has garnered hundreds of thousands of views and revisits claims about property allegedly owned by the family and their lifestyle. Two other videos about Alena Aliyeva have also received tens and hundreds of thousands of views.
In these videos, Huseynov expresses a critical stance towards the ruling family, particularly Alena Aliyeva, the wife of the president’s son. He raises issues related to her past lifestyle, as well as property and privileges which, he claims, she and her father obtained after joining the presidential family, and questions of reputation. A significant portion of this criticism is framed in offensive terms. The factual basis of these claims has not been confirmed by independent sources.
In cases where such claims are not supported by independent documentation or verifiable sources, professional journalism draws a clear distinction between “allegation” and “fact”.
Official sources also describe these publications — including the videos and the purported intimate materials linked to Alena Aliyeva — as “defamation” and part of a “smear campaign”.
Blackmail allegations and competing narratives
The first part of the official account concerns an alleged blackmail attempt. In a video aired by İctimai TV, it is claimed that “around the same time” as bloggers began publishing accusations about Alena Aliyeva, a separate extortion attempt took place. A person said to be abroad allegedly demanded €5m in exchange for not releasing footage attributed to Alena Aliyeva. The State Security Service says it opened a criminal case and detained F.S.
The second strand relates to claims of “fabricated materials”. The same report states that images found on the detained person’s phone were taken from “18+ websites”. It adds that the woman shown in the footage is not Alena Aliyeva, but a person known on those platforms under the pseudonym Amber Lulu. The report therefore maintains that the “intimate materials” attributed to Alena Aliyeva are fake.
The İctimai TV report also places the case in a broader context of risks linked to new media. Technologies such as face-swapping and deepfakes have made it easier to create and distribute false intimate content without consent. International media have for years reported on the use of such tools in some cases as a form of so-called “revenge porn” and as a means of blackmail.
A third strand presents the situation as a “co-ordinated campaign”. Officials describe a “large-scale campaign of blackmail and defamation” involving “provocateurs living abroad”, with several opposition bloggers named in this context. Pro-government commentary has echoed this framing, portraying the situation as a “hybrid” information attack and suggesting possible external co-ordination.
In opposition discourse, however, the focus is on the objectivity of the investigation and the risk that institutional resources could be used in a personal reputational dispute.
State-aligned media have also presented an additional element as “evidence”: a fragment of an audio recording, said to have been found on F.S.’s phone. In the recording, a voice refers to Mehman being “allowed to say this” in relation to videos about Alena Aliyeva, and uses phrases such as “they allow it up to a certain point”.
As the full context of the recording and the results of any forensic examination have not been made public, it is not currently possible to draw firm conclusions about its evidential value in court.
Wider context
One of the most sensitive aspects of this story is the boundary between the right to privacy and freedom of expression. Even if the alleged blackmail attempt was based on fabricated materials, the circulation of intimate content linked to private life can have serious psychological and social consequences. At the same time, while claims concerning the president’s family and senior officials may be considered a matter of public interest, without fact-checking, ethical standards and legal accountability, such discussions can quickly turn into personal abuse, reputational attacks and disinformation.
A second key issue is transparency. Official statements stress that the identity of F.S. has not been disclosed in the absence of a court verdict. However, a number of questions remain unanswered: what technical analysis led investigators to conclude that the materials were “edited”; how it was determined that the images were allegedly sourced from “18+ websites”; through which channels the alleged blackmail demand was communicated; and how these actions will ultimately be classified under the law.
A third aspect concerns the logic of the information confrontation. The official side portrays the events as a “smear campaign”, while opposition bloggers say their criticism is focused on the resources and privileges concentrated around the president’s family. As a result, the debate is shaped less by verifiable facts than by competing interpretations of intent, which in turn accelerates the spread of disinformation and encourages the formation of public “verdicts” before any legal ruling.
Whether Azerbaijan’s investigation and judicial system — whose independence is often questioned — will be able to establish a clear and credible precedent, both in the alleged blackmail case and in defining the legal boundaries of online campaigns, remains an open question.
Blackmail of Azerbaijan president’s family
Georgia has declared a period of mourning following the passing of Patriarch Ilia II, with politicians across the spectrum and representatives of various public groups coming together to extend condolences and reflect on the legacy of the influential religious leader.
Patriarch Ilia II, who led the Church for nearly five decades, died at Tbilisi’s Caucasus Medical Center after being hospitalized in critical condition with severe internal bleeding during the early hours of March 17. He was widely regarded as one of the most pivotal figures in Georgia’s recent history, enjoying broad public trust across political divides in a country where more than 80 percent of the population identifies with Orthodox Christianity.
The Patriarch’s body will be transferred in a procession to Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral on the afternoon of March 18, where it will lie in repose for memorial services.
“His personality and life perhaps most vividly reflect the upheavals we have gone through over this period,” Zviad Abashidze, a Georgian political scientist, wrote on March 18. “The re-establishment of the Church as an institution and the immense growth of its authority are directly linked to his persona, an extremely difficult process that certainly did not happen overnight,” Abashidze said, noting that the Orthodox Church “is the only historical institution that has survived from our centuries-old past, as all others were first destroyed by the Romanovs and later by Soviet Russia.”
“However, in recent years, due to age, the Patriarch’s influential hand was truly missed in shaping events, which allowed many ill-intentioned actors to take advantage,” Abashidze added.
As statements continue to pour in, commentators have noted Ilia II’s far-reaching authority, the rare level of public trust he enjoyed despite deep polarization, and his role in shaping decades of Georgia’s spiritual life, marked by the growing influence of the Georgian Orthodox Church since the late Soviet years.
Having led the Church since 1977, his tenure weathered repeated controversies, including internal scandals, criticism over foreign policy and domestic political stances, the Church’s attitudes toward LGBTQ+ groups, and recurring questions about its loyalty to those in power, including at times tacit or more explicit endorsement of more repressive policies pursued by Georgia’s ruling party in recent years.
Metropolitan Shio, who was named by Ilia II as his locum tenens in 2017, will assume the late Patriarch’s duties before the election of a new Patriarch by an extended church assembly. Under the Church’s Statute of Administration adopted in 1995, a new Patriarch is elected by an extended church assembly from three candidates nominated by the Holy Synod, no sooner than 40 days and no later than two months after the Patriarch’s passing.
Politicians Reflect on Ilia II’s Legacy
Both the ruling Georgian Dream party and opposition politicians have expressed sadness over the Patriarch’s passing, extending condolences to the parish and noting Ilia II’s legacy in shaping the “epoch.”
Georgian Dream party founder Bidzina Ivanishvili and his wife, Ekaterine Ivanishvili, said in a statement released by the ruling party that with the passing of Ilia II, “an era has come to an end in the history of our country, an era of a man who carried out, with dignity and tirelessly fulfilled, the difficult, responsible, and at the same time honorable mission of Georgia’s spiritual father. An epoch has ended of a leader who, on numerous occasions, guided us to safety and left a special light in the heart of every citizen of our country.”
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said that with the Patriarch’s passing, “a great era has come to an end in the history of our Mother Church and the Georgian state.” He wrote that the period of Ilia II’s patriarchate “coincided with the most difficult, transformative years for our country. Throughout this historical path, he consistently remained the nation’s spiritual leader and a symbol of unity. Through his wisdom, love for others, boundless patience, and capacity for forgiveness, the Patriarch strengthened faith in our hearts.”
“The legacy of His Holiness extends beyond the purely ecclesiastical dimension,” Kobakhidze continued. “In the cause of preserving national identity, safeguarding traditions, and consolidating statehood, the contribution of Ilia II is immeasurable. Through selfless service to God, to the homeland, and to humanity, he has forever secured his place among the greatest figures of our centuries-long history.”
Georgia’s fifth President, Salome Zurabishvili, also paid tribute, saying Ilia II devoted his entire life’s work to three principal goals: “1. Serving God and restoring spirituality in a country where 70 years of Soviet rule had tried and to some extent succeeded in uprooting Christianity. 2. The unity of society. 3. The third goal reflects your profound patriotism and sense of statehood. From the very first days of your enthronement, you ensured that Georgian monasteries would become active along all the country’s borders, as spiritual guardians.”
Opposition Ahali Party co-founder Nika Gvaramia also expressed condolences, describing Ilia II as “the man who was loved by the most people in our country, the one whose word carried the greatest weight in Georgia for half a century, the one who was a religious figure, yet was loved not only by his own parish, but also by Georgians of other faiths, by agnostics, and by atheists, the one who was both a spiritual leader and a person with a variety of talents, a creator, a kulturträger.”
Civil Society Assess Patriarch’s Legacy
Civil society figures also reflected on the Patriarch’s legacy, pointing to his role as a unifying figure while noting the broader societal impact of the Church during his tenure.
Former Public Defender of Georgia, Nino Lomjaria, said the Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia, Ilia II, “was a person around whom the vast majority of society united. For decades, the hopes, faith, and expectations of countless people were bound to his name. Today, as one great historical cycle draws to a close, I join in the grief of the mourning parish and of all Georgia…”
Tamta Mikeladze, Director of the Equality Policy Program at the Social Justice Center, said, “The passing of Ilia II is indeed the end of an epoch in Georgia. For many, his figure served as a spiritual anchor, a symbol of stability and identity during periods of profound historical and social transformation.” […] “At the same time, such a central role for the Church gradually became a specific form of power that was less subject to democratic oversight. During the patriarchate of Ilia II, a model was reinforced in which national identity, Orthodoxy, and statehood became closely intertwined. On the one hand, this fostered a sense of unity, but on the other, it constrained pluralism and reinforced social hierarchies.”
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