In 1957 he was hired as a maritime engineer by the state-run oil company at which time he became very active in his local Komsomol branch. In 1961 Mehdiyev enrolled in the history department at Azerbaijan State University in Baku. His activity in the Baku Komsomol branch earned him the attention of Azerbaijan Communist Party officials, and he was promoted to a position as a student adviser for the Azerbaijani branch of the Vladimir Lenin All-Union Pioneer Organization in 1965. It was during this time that he'd be acquainted with Heydar Aliyev, a fellow Azerbaijani with Nakhchivan roots who at the time was a high-ranking official in the Azerbaijani KGB, headquartered down the street from the university. After his graduation from ASU, Mehdiyev was elected in 1967 to a secretary position of the Komsomol wing of the Nakhchivan Communist Party. However, he was quickly admitted to Moscow State University in 1968 as a PhD candidate in social philosophy. During Mehdiyev's time in Moscow in 1969, Heydar Aliyev was elected First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. Upon defense of his dissertation, titled V.I. Lenin on the Interactions of Nationalism and Opportunism, Mehdiyev was awarded his PhD in May of 1972. Mehdiyev returned immediately to Baku having been granted a job as a professor in the Scientific Communism Department of Azerbaijan State University. Aliyev's ambitious plans for improving education, bolstering ideological rigor, and cracking down on corruption in the Azerbaijan SSR were aided by the return of Mehdiyev to Azerbaijan and the resumption of his party work, which still focused heavily on students and youth. In 1974, Mehdiyev was appointed as a lecturer in the Ideology and Propaganda department as well as assistant director of the Science and Education committee of the Azerbaijan Communist Party. In 1978, he was appointed the first secretary of the 26 Baku Commissars Party Committee. In 1980 he was elected to the Party's Central Committee and became the director of Party Organization.
Later career
In 1988, Mehdiyev was made department director of the Institute of Political Research for the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. In the 1980s and 1990s, he was a deputy to the Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR elected twice. In 1993, Heydar Aliyev was elected President of Azerbaijan and Mehdiyev was subsequently elected to the National Assembly of Azerbaijan. On February 7, 1995, Aliyev appointed Mehdyiev to be the Head of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan. This move was thought to be partially influenced by Aliyev's desire to keep a close-knit group of Nakhchivan advisors to consolidate power in the region. In 2007, Mehdiyev was selected to be a full member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences. He is also Chairman of the Editorial Board of the "Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences" journal published by the Azerbaijan Philosophy and Social-Political Sciences Association.
Academic works and writings
Mehdiyev is the author of over 250 scientific articles on social phenomena, economic development, and philosophy and dialectics, focusing on the post-Soviet development of Azerbaijan. He has also published over 20 books, 7 of which have been translated to different languages. These include: Interethnic relations at the end of the 20th century, Realities of Azerbaijani genocide, Dialectics of development of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan: historical heritage and philosophy of independence, Philosophy textbook, Azerbaijan: Calls for globalization, Parliament elections of 2005: preliminary analysis, Ideas, opening the paths to civil society, On the path of national ideology, statehood and independence in two volumes, On the path to democracy, and Determining the development strategy: modernization course. Mehdiyev has been awarded with the Order of the Red Banner of Labour, the Order of Glory and was elected a member of New York Academy of Sciences in 2001.
