Why Muhammad Yunus hosted Azerbaijan’s controversial first daughters in Dhaka |
For a nation already navigating political turbulence, Bangladesh now finds itself entangled in yet another geopolitical puzzle: why did the head of the interim regime, Muhammad Yunus, extend red-carpet hospitality to Leyla and Arzu Aliyeva – the scandal-scarred daughters of Azerbaijan’s notoriously corrupt President Ilham Aliyev? Their surprise appearance in Dhaka and Yunus’s decision to present them with a book portraying India’s northeastern states as part of Bangladesh raise uncomfortable questions about diplomatic motives, covert agendas, and a possible convergence of political opportunism and global money-laundering networks.
On December 7, 2025, Muhammad Yunus proudly announced on Facebook that he had hosted Leyla Aliyeva and Arzu Aliyeva in Dhaka. The post described the sisters as eager to explore “humanitarian, social, youth, volunteer, environmental, and nature-protection projects” in Bangladesh through the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the IDEA Public Union.
But the optics told a different story.
Yunus presented the Aliyeva sisters a book titled “Art of Triumph”, whose cover controversially depicts India’s northeastern states as part of Bangladesh – a geopolitical provocation that could destabilize Dhaka’s delicate relationship with New Delhi. Why such a book? Why now? And why to daughters of a foreign strongman with a track record tainted by corruption, secrecy, and offshore wealth?
This meeting appears to be far more than a benign diplomatic courtesy. It may be mentioned here that in 2012, Azerbaijanian President Ilham Aliyev was named as the “corruption’s person of the year” by corruption watchdog Transparency International.
The Aliyeva sisters are not unfamiliar names in international investigative circles. According to the European........