Azerbaijani Energy Minister Natiq Aliyev has died in a Turkish hospital, news reports cited Azerbaijani officials as saying.
Media reports in Azerbaijan quote officials at the Azerbaijani Consulate in Istanbul as saying that Aliyev died on June 9, several days after being transferred to the Florence Nightingale Clinic in Istanbul for treatment of a heart complaint.
The 69-year-old veteran executive in the energy sector of the oil-rich former Soviet republic in the South Caucasus served as president of the state energy company SOCAR and chaired the company's board of directors in 1993-2005.
He was the Minister of Industry and Energy in 2005-2013, and became the Energy Minister afterwards.
He represented Azerbaijan in its negotiations with foreign companies over major energy contracts and took part in talks with OPEC members on global oil production cuts.
Aliyev was not related to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
