He was a Soviet diplomat, who served in India, Nepal and Pakistan. He had been out of the Azerbaijan SSR for over a decade and therefore was untainted by the corruption.[2] He was neither a typical political boss nor a local nationalist; he could not even speak fluent Azerbaijani.[3] But at the same time, Vazirov was born in Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan SSR.
Vazirov shared Mikhail Gorbachev's internationalist values and aspirations for political reform but he could not cope effectively with the complex political situation in Azerbaijan.[3] He was also known as a fierce opponent of the former leader of Soviet Azerbaijan and later the 3rd president of independent Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev.
^Lubomyr Hajda, Mark R. Beissinger. The Nationalities Factor in Soviet Politics and Society, Westview Press, 1990, ISBN0-8133-7644-0, p. 233
^Roland Grigor Suny. "Nationalism and Democracy in Gorbachev's Soviet Union: The Case of Karabagh", published in Rachel Denber. The Soviet Nationality Reader: The Disintegration in Context, Westview Press, 1992, ISBN0-8133-1027-X, p. 494
^ abRobert V. Barylski. "The Russian Federation and Eurasia's Islamic Crescent", Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 46, No. 3. (1994), p. 397
^Thomas Goltz. Azerbaijan Diary: A Rogue Reporter's Adventures in an Oil-Rich, War-Torn, Post-Soviet Republic, M. E. Sharpe, 1998, ISBN0-7656-0244-X, p. 410