The ruling elite has leveraged the bogeyman of Islamic extremism to cast itself as the guardian of a secular and stable Azerbaijani state to rationalize the adoption of more autocratic policies both domestically and internationally.
What is new, however, is the conduct of elections in Karabakh, including in its abandoned former de facto capital, where President Aliyev cast his vote.
The warning comes after the country's delegation preemptively quit the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly and amid worsening diplomatic crises.
Russian peacekeeping troops in Nagorno-Karabakh presided over the exodus of the entire population they were sent there to protect. Moscow says they've done a great job.
For years to come, its violent dissolution will loom large in the Armenian consciousness and reverberate across other majority-minority conflicts around the globe.
It will be the second straight presidential election, and sixth consecutive election overall, to be held without the participation of the country's two biggest opposition parties.