Elcibey Buried in Baku
- By Unknown
- Aug. 25 2000 00:00
More than 20,000 mourners accompanied the coffin from Elcibey’s house to the Academy of Sciences and then on to the graveyard overlooking the Caspian Sea, a distance of several kilometers.
A mullah intoned a prayer along the way as mourners wept for the academic turned politician who died of prostate cancer aged 62 in a Turkish hospital early on Tuesday.
For many, Elcibey was seen as the man who helped the republic of 8 million shake off Soviet rule and take its first tentative steps toward true independence.