Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He has been the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005.

He is the son of former Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev and became the country's president on 31 October 2003 after a two-month term as the prime minister of Azerbaijan, through a presidential election defined by irregularities, shortly before his father's death. Ilham Aliyev was re-elected for a second term in 2008 and was allowed to run in elections indefinitely in 2013, 2018 and 2024 due to the 2009 constitutional referendum, which removed term limits for presidents. He is also the husband of Mehriban Aliyeva, Vice President of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's oil-rich territory has significantly strengthened the stability of Aliyev's regime and enriched the nation's ruling elite, enabling it to host lavish international events, as well as engage in extensive lobbying efforts. Aliyev's family has also enriched itself through ties to state-run businesses. They hold significant stakes in several major Azerbaijani banks, construction and telecommunications companies, as well as in the country’s oil and gas sector. In 2012, Aliyev was named the "Person of the Year" by Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project for featuring prominently in stories on crime and corruption. In 2017, it was revealed that Aliyev and his family were involved in the Azerbaijani laundromat, a complex money-laundering scheme to pay off prominent European politicians to deflect criticism of Aliyev and promote a positive image of his regime.

Aliyev is widely considered a dictator, presiding over an authoritarian government characterized by the absence of free and fair elections, pervasive corruption, and serious human rights violations. Aliyev’s regime is also known for promoting Sunnification, and the suppression of Shia Islam to tighten control, and align with Turkey. His regime is known for the harassment of journalists and non-governmental organizations, as well as the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh. The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict continued during Aliyev's presidency and devolved into a full-scale war in 2020 in which Azerbaijan regained control over the Armenian-occupied territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh as well as a part of Nagorno-Karabakh region itself. Then, in the fall of 2023, Azerbaijan initiated a military offensive that ended with the surrender of the self-declared Republic of Artsakh and mass flight of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Ilham Aliyev is the son of Heydar Aliyev, president of Azerbaijan from 1993 to 2003. His mother Zarifa Aliyeva was an Azerbaijani ophthalmologist. He also has an older sister, Sevil Aliyeva. In 1977, Ilham Aliyev entered the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO-MSIIR) and in 1982, continued his education as a postgraduate. In 1985 he received a PhD degree in history. From 1985 to 1990 Aliyev lectured at MSIIR. From 1991 to 1994, he led a group of private industrial-commercial enterprises. In 1994–2003, he was vice-president, and later the first vice-president of SOCAR, the state-owned Azerbaijani oil and gas company. Since 1997, Aliyev has been the president of the National Olympic Committee of Azerbaijan.

In 1999, Ilham Aliyev was elected as the deputy chair of the ruling New Azerbaijan Party and in 2001, he was elected to the post of first deputy chair at the Second Congress of the Party. At the third Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party held on 26 March 2005, President Aliyev and the first deputy of the Party was unanimously elected to the post of chairman of the Party. The fourth and fifth congresses of the party held in 2008 and 2013 unanimously supported his nomination for the next presidential term.

In 1995, Aliyev was elected to the Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan; later he became president of the National Olympic Committee (still incumbent).^{[citation needed]}

From 2001 to 2003, Aliyev was head of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).