Azerbaijan to Create Network of ‘Diaspora’ Centers

Azerbaijan’s government wants to create centers for Azeri immigrant communities abroad

BAKU—Azerbaijan plans to open “coordination centers” for “the Azeri diaspora” in the U.S., France, Ukraine and Germany, according to Azeri news agency AzerNews.

So-called coordination centers in Ukraine and Germany will open in late November to early December with the support of the Azerbaijani government.

The issue was discussed at a meeting between a delegation led by the Chief of the Staff of Azerbaijan’s State Committee for Work with Diaspora Nariman Gurbanov, and the Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States (CCTS) Secretary General Ramil Hasanov in Istanbul.

“The centers will work to further strengthen the position of Turkic-speaking countries’ diaspora on the international arena and to expand the influence in the countries of residence,” a press release from the group says.

“The meeting also mulled the issues of strengthening joint action against Armenian propaganda of marking the 100th anniversary of the fictional ‘genocide’ in 2015,” the press release adds.

The group also estimates that there are 50 million Azerbaijanis living across the globe.