Ailing Azeri leader goes home

Aliyev briefly returned to work after his collapse

Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev has flown home from a Turkish hospital, where he was being treated following his collapse at the end of April.

Mr Aliyev spent a week at the Ankara hospital, during which he celebrated his 80th birthday.

"After completing a course of treatment at the Gulhane military clinic, President Heydar Aliyev left the clinic on 12 May and returned home," said a statement by the presidential press service.

He flew into Baku Airport in the early hours of Monday morning and was seen being driven away in a cortege of limousines.

He was unable to attend the grand celebrations laid on for him in Azerbaijan and spent the day in the hospital.

The president collapsed three weeks ago while giving a speech broadcast live on television.

History of problems

His aides said he had merely suffered a momentary drop in blood pressure.

He returned to work the next day, but 10 days later was flown to Turkey in the middle of the night for medical treatment.

He appeared on television on Saturday looking weak but smiling as he was congratulated by Turkish officials.

Mr Aliyev, a former KGB general who has led Azerbaijan for most of the last three decades, has a history of health problems.

The BBC's Chloe Arnold in Baku says many Azeris fear he is now too old and too ill to govern the country.

But with no obvious successor, our correspondent says, there are concerns there may be a return to the instability of the early 1990s which followed the break-up of the USSR.

There has been no official word on Mr Aliyev's health, but he is believed to be convalescing at home.