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Azerbaijan's ambassador to the U.S. to visit Indiana University Bloomington

• Oct. 29, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Elin Suleymanov, the Republic of Azerbaijan's ambassador to the United States, will visit Indiana University Bloomington on Nov. 19 and 20 to discuss promoting further study of the Central Eurasian country.

During his visit, Suleymanov will meet with university leadership and faculty in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies, which are part of the IU School of Global and International Studies.

He will speak at 4 p.m. Nov. 19 in the State Room East at the Indiana Memorial Union, 900 E. Seventh St., on the topic "The Future of Azerbaijan as an Energy and Cultural Crossroads." A reception will follow.

Also on display at the event will be an exhibit, "The Satire and Punditry of Molla Nasreddin," which will present dramatic and colorful cartoons from an early 20th-century Azerbaijani periodical. It was first displayed at the international conference of the Central Eurasian Studies Society, which attracted about 400 scholars from around the world to IU last year.

The IU Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, together with the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center and the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, will sponsor the event, which is free and open to the public. Edward Lazzerini, an academic specialist in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies and an adjunct professor of history, directs both the center and the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies and will serve as Suleymanov’s escort while on campus.

“IU Bloomington is home to the nation’s greatest concentration of programs and scholars focused on Central Eurasia, which includes Azerbaijan,” said David Zaret, IU vice president for international affairs. “We are pleased with the opportunity that the ambassador’s visit affords us to stay abreast of current and future developments in the region.”

The Department of Central Eurasian Studies, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, which is a federally funded Title VI area studies center, and the Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies have more than 50 years of history at IU.

In October 2011, President Ilham Aliyev appointed Suleymanov as Azerbaijan's ambassador to the United States. Prior to that, Suleymanov had been his nation’s first consul general to Los Angeles and the western states for more than five years, leading the team that established an Azerbaijani diplomatic presence on the West Coast.

Earlier, he served as senior counselor at the Foreign Relations Department of the Office of the President in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. He also was press officer at the Azerbaijani embassy in Washington, D.C.

Suleymanov’s experience before joining diplomatic service includes working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Azerbaijan, as well as with the Open Media Research Institute in Prague, the Czech Republic, and Glaverbel Czech, a manufacturing company in East-Central Europe.

A graduate of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Suleymanov also holds graduate degrees from the political geography department of Moscow State University in Russia and from the University of Toledo.

Related Links

• Office of the Vice President for International Affairs
• Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center
• Sinor Research Institute for Inner Asian Studies
• Department of Central Eurasian Studies