Black Garden : Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War

Party, a Popular Front of Azerbaijan. Some of the others were skeptical, 
but Alizade recalls, “We went to Leila’s house, bought a cake on the 
way, had the cake and some tea. And from the next day I began to work 
on creating a Popular Front.”
1 
By September, the intellectuals had formulated the first draft pro-
gram for “The Popular Front of Azerbaijan in Support of Perestroika.” 
As the name implies, it was a pro-Gorbachev reformist organization. 
Many of its policy ideas were adapted from a copy of the Estonian Pop­
ular Front program, which they had obtained by chance. More impor­
tant than the program was the fact for the first time Azerbaijan had an 
alternative political banner around which activists could gather. 
From very tentative beginnings, the Azerbaijani nationalist opposi­
tion traveled a long road to power. It finally ousted the Communist