Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev (Azerbaijani: İlham Heydər oğlu Əliyev, born 24 December 1961) is the current President of Azerbaijan. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party.

Aliyev was born in Baku as the son of Heydar Aliyev, who was made head of the Azerbaijani KGB when İlham was six and later became party leader for Azerbaijan and full member of Politburo, and Dr. Zarifa Aliyeva, a medical doctor and daughter of Soviet politician Aziz Aliyev. After completing school in Baku, İlham attended Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO), receiving a PhD in history, before starting to teach at MGIMO.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Aliyev worked as a businessman in Moscow and Istanbul from 1991 to 1994.