Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has appointed his wife Mehriban Aliyeva as first vice president, an announcement on the president’s official website said on Tuesday, prompting criticism that Aliyev was seeking to entrench his power. 

Aliyeva has served as a lawmaker and headed a charity of the president in the past.

At a meeting of Azerbaijan's Security Council, Aliyev praised his wife as "a very professional, clever, experienced, principled and benevolent person." 

Aliyeva meanwhile thanked him for his support and for “this high confidence in me.” 

The 52-year-old first lady and first vice president comes from one of Azerbaijan’s most powerful families and is well known in the Muslim-majority country for her western dress sense, according to the Financial Times.

Her nomination comes after a referendum in the ex-Soviet nation last September set up two vice presidential posts, with the first vice-president the second most important person in the country after the president.

The referendum also extended the presidential term from five to seven years, with critics saying it effectively cemented a dynastic rule, according to the Associated Press.

Aliyev succeeded his father as Azerbaijan's president in 2003 and is currently serving his third term in office. ‍

An opposition leader denounced Aliyeva's appointment as a "first step to establishment of an absolute monarchy," Reuters news agency reported. 

Aliyev supporters credit him with establishing Azerbaijan as a key energy supplier to Europe, but critics also accuse his government of human rights abuses and suppression of dissent.