In 1938 Aziz Aliyev was elected secretary of the Azerbaijan SSR Supreme Soviet. In 1939–1941 he served as Azerbaijan Minister of Health Care. In 1941, after the Soviet invasion of Iranian Azerbaijan and Iranian Kurdistan, Aliyev was deployed to Tabriz on a political mission. The goal of his council (later known as the "Aziz Aliyev Group") was to establish ties with local Communists and to propagate Communism on political, social and cultural levels.