Ex-Communist Back in Power in Azerbaijan : Politics: Legislators make former KGB chief their chairman. They hope the move will head off drive by rebel forces.

BAKU, Azerbaijan —  With a rebel army poised 60 miles outside Baku and threatening to attack the capital, Azerbaijani lawmakers Tuesday elected their old Communist leader and former KGB chief to rescue their nation from the brink of civil war.

Bringing about one of the most amazing political comebacks of the post-Soviet era, the Parliament elected as its chairman Geidar Aliyev, 70, who served in Stalin’s secret police, ran Azerbaijan’s KGB and then its Communist Party and was sacked from the Soviet Politburo by Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1987.

Aliyev, who is enormously popular here, was seen as the only leader with the stature and experience to shore up the flailing government and make peace with a rebel army commander who has seized nearly a quarter of Azerbaijan’s territory and forced the prime minister and the Parliament chairman to resign.

The rebel push toward Baku grew so threatening Tuesday that some U.S. Embassy and oil company employees began to evacuate their families from the Azerbaijani capital.

“Only Aliyev can stop the bloodshed,” said poet and lawmaker Bakhtiar Vahabadze, urging his colleagues to elect Aliyev without delay.

But as the Parliament met, the government confirmed reports of fresh fighting between loyalist forces and some of the estimated 12,000 troops commanded by rebel leader Surat Guseinov in Adjikabul, about 75 miles from the capital.

Earlier this month, Guseinov captured a former Russian army base in Azerbaijan’s second-biggest city, Gyandzha, and 69 people were killed in the ensuing battle. He now controls tanks, at least four Grad rocket launchers and other sophisticated weaponry inherited from the Soviet Union as well as a small army reportedly swelling with government defectors.

As his troops advanced toward Baku, Guseinov also demanded the resignation of President Abulfez Elchibey. Literally and politically besieged, Elchibey invited Aliyev to become prime minister. Aliyev refused but has been acting as a negotiator in the conflict while demanding a more powerful post.

“We’re on the road to civil war,” a wan Elchibey told lawmakers Tuesday as he urged them to elect Aliyev. “There could be a great tragedy.”

Aliyev’s supporters said they hope the man who ran Azerbaijan for 15 years can bring a swift end to the internal revolt. Foes said it is not clear whether Aliyev is controlling Guseinov or being controlled by him.

“I’m not sure it will prevent civil war,” said Niyazi Ibrahimov of the opposition Equality Party. He also expressed doubts about Aliyev’s credentials as the leader of a democracy.

In a speech accepting the job that will give him de facto powers equal to Elchibey’s, Aliyev pledged to try to arrange a peaceful settlement with Guseinov. He also advocated a negotiated solution to the five-year war with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Aliyev promised to respect human rights, provide equal rights to all Azerbaijan residents regardless of ethnic origin, chart a free-market economic course and keep Azerbaijan independent and free from undue foreign influence.