The president of the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, has called an early presidential election for February 7, the Azerbaijani state news agency Apa reported in Baku on Thursday. The 61-year-old Aliyev has led the country on the Caspian Sea with some 10 million inhabitants since 2003 and his rule is considered authoritarian. Aliyev appears to be trying to capitalize on the successful reconquest of the Nagorno-Karabakh region in September, which he described on Wednesday as a restoration of sovereignty. The military campaign drove more than 100,000 Karabakh Armenians from th…