On December 4, 2009, the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) held its successful regional conference in Chicago, IL, at the Kent Law College. The conference attracted attention from the local political, diplomatic, business, academic and diaspora circles.
Chicago has a large and growing Azerbaijani-American Diaspora and is home to the only Azerbaijani-American TV channel, yet events related to Azerbaijan, especially organized by the Azerbaijani Diaspora are rare. USAN tried to change that by spurring and promoting grassroots activism and holding its regional conference in the heart of Chicago with a special spotlight on the Azerbaijani Diaspora. USAN is committed to helping Azerbaijani communities throughout the U.S. with voter registration, establishing grounds for community events, building bridges with other local ethnic communities and promoting grassroots activism.
USAN would like to extend is special thanks to the Consulate General of Azerbaijan in Los Angeles for attending and helping the event with sponsorship, the Consulate General of Turkey with the attendance of the event as well as publicizing it via its newsletter, the Consulate General of Pakistan with presentation at the event and spreading the news among with Pakistani-American community, the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI) – Midwest for attending and publicizing the event in its newsletter, and the Azerbaijani-American TV channel GunAz for covering the event in their December 5 and subsequent special reports for thousands of Azerbaijani viewers worldwide. USAN would also like to thank all the regional Congressional and Senatorial offices, who inspite of being in session and being busy with healthcare, climate change, appropriations, and other important bills, were able to give their attention to the conference as well.
Opening the conference was the special proclamation from the Governor of Illinois designating May 28, 2009 as the Azerbaijan National Day, which USAN has received in the anticipation of the conference (http://www.usazeris.org/proclamations/web/IllinoisGovernorProclamationUSAN-28May2009_3.JPG). Following the proclamation, a special welcome letter from the Mayor of Chicago Richard Dailey to the USAN conference was read (will be available at the USAN website soon). As the first panel aimed to discuss broad political issues, it consistent of presentations by the Director of the Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) Prof. Dr. Elkhan Nuriyev, mayor of the town of Skokie, IL, Prof. Dr. George Van Dusen, and Consul of the Azerbaijan Consulate General of Los Angeles, Mr. Elman Abdullayev.
In his presentation, Prof. Nuriyev touched on the current energy geopolitics of the Caspian region, the multiple pipeline routes, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the perspectives for the U.S.-Azerbaijan relations. On the other hand, Mayor Van Dusen offered very detailed and specific recommendations to the USAN members on why is it important to be politically active, and how can this be accomplished, whether by registering to vote, taking part in the next year’s census, grassroots and student activism. During the Q&A session, Dr. Adil Baguirov, the Managing Director of USAN, asked the Mayor of Skokie what are his strategies to overcome inherent passiveness of immigrants who come from post-soviet countries. Prof. Van Dusen acknowledged that this problem of distrust towards any form of government is very wide-spread and he, as a mayor, has to deal with this problem. One of the strategies to gain the trust and interest of the residents of Skokie is to organize meetings in such public gathering places, such as Skokie library.
Consul Abdullayev has discussed the state of the U.S.-Azerbaijan relations, the latest Turkey-Armenia rapprochement, and the various passport and visa requirements for visitors to Azerbaijan as well as citizens of Azerbaijan living in U.S. Several comments were provided by Mr. Suleyman Sozeri, Consul of the Consulate General of Turkey in Chicago, and Mrs. Azize Sargin, Vice-Consul of the Consulate General of Turkey in Chicago. Mr. Sozeri and Mrs. Sargin pointed out that relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey surpass mere relationship based on interest and are more of brotherly nature. These remarks were welcomed by the audience.
Following the politics session, was the culture, music and history panel, where Prof. Harry Lepinske emphasized the importance of education and volunteering, as well as work done throughout the Turkic countries to bring best Western practices for adoption in the interested countries. Prof. Lepinske shared his experience with Azerbaijani students from Nakhchivan and informed the audience about current educational programs organized in United States for exchange students from Azerbaijan. When asked how Azerbaijani-Americans can help facilitate this process, he pointed out the important need to expand the network of Azerbaijani-Americans and promote such conferences and scholarly forums.
Prof. Inna Naroditskaya of the Northwestern University, and the top expert on Azerbaijani mugham in the U.S., has spoken at length about that ancient folk musical genre, its fusion with other popular genre such as jazz, rock and classical music, and the importance and need to study the art of mugham in the United States, and about her trip to Azerbaijan for the international Mugham Festival. Prof. Naroditskaya mentioned in order to promote Azerbaijani Art of Mugham several Azerbaijani Mugham and Jazz concerts were organized through sponsorship of the Musicology Department of Northwestern University in Chicago, including with the participation of the UNESCO 1999 singer of the year Alim Qasimov.
Then, Prof. Holly Shissler of the University of Chicago made a presentation about the late 19th and early 20th century intellectuals of Azerbaijani Turkic origin that played an important role in the development of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR), the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. Specifically, Prof. Shissler, an author of a comprehensive monograph (Between Two Empires: Ahmet Agaoglu and the New Turkey, I.B.Tauris, 2003) about the life and work of Dr. Ahmed bey Agaoglu (Agayev), gave many vivid examples from the extraordinary achievements of Ahmed bey Agaoglu.
After the luncheon, where Azerbaijani and Turkish food were provided for the conference attendees, a three-person delegation from the U.S. Census Bureau led by Ms. Malaun Rice made an extensive presentation on the Census 2010, followed by comprehensive questions and answers session, which was met with great interest by all conference attendees. Mr. Greg Robinson of the U.S. Census Bureau, distributed several factsheets and sample census forms to each conference attendees for handy reference. The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN), along with its sister organization the U.S. Turkic Network (USTN), are the first-ever Azerbaijani and Turkic organizations to have been recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as their official partners for the next year’s census.
The third panel was on the trade and international relations and links, where Dr. Asad Hayauddin, Consul on Trade and Commerce at the Consulate of Pakistan, gave an extensive presentation on World Trade Organization (WTO), and what can Azerbaijan, an aspiring member of that free trade organization, expect from joining the organization, as well as in terms of support and positions of such founding members as Pakistan. When questioned by an Azerbaijani-American Assistant Professor of Finance Fariz Huseynov on the pro’s and contra’s of joining the WTO for a nation such as Azerbaijan, Dr. Hayauddin’s reply provided additional points on the overall positive effect of joining the WTO for Azerbaijan. Following the trade and economy presentation, attention was turned to international and inter-ethnic relations, with Mr. William Yoshino, Midwest Director of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), giving a historic background of the Japanese-American community, its achievements in fighting for civil rights in U.S. on behalf of all Asian-Americans. Today, thanks to the work of JACL and all members of the community, the Japanese-Americans are a highly respected and integrated ethnic group, which lends a helping hand to smaller communities, such as the Azerbaijani-Americans, in trying to better integrate into the American society. JACL is the oldest Asian-American organization, founded in 1929, which for the first-time ever in its history signed a formal partnership agreement with another organization – the U.S. Azeris Network (USAN).
The final panel on grassroots advocacy and congressional relations was in a roundtable format, with the participation of Mr. Ahmad Obali, the leader of the Azerbaijani-American community in Chicago and founder of the only Azerbaijani-American TV channel GunAz, which is broadcast over the Internet and via satellite, Mr. Jason Katz, a public affairs consultant and former American Jewish Committee (AJC) Orange County Chapter Government and Public Relations Director, Ms. Mehriban Afandiyeva, USAN Northern Region Director, and Dr. Adil Baguirov, Managing Director of USAN, with active participation of the audience members, including Mr. Ali Yilmaz, the leader of the Turkman community (Turkmans are considered to be the Azerbaijani Turks of Iraq), Prof. Sevil Kutay, President and Board member of the Turkish American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TACCI) – Midwest, Prof. Fariz Huseynov, and others. The discussion centered on the subject of making the Azerbaijani-American community more politically active, better educated and prepared for the various opportunities in the domestic political space. The discussion involved a formal presentation about USAN, its capabilities, as well as a hands-on example of how to register to vote, send sample letters to Members of Congress and media, and take part in the Census 2010.
USAN considers its regional conference in Chicago an overwhelming success and is committed to do a follow-up conference in the area next year to build on that success. USAN invites all Azerbaijani-Americans throughout the United States to be active and make year 2010 as the year of Azerbaijani-Americans by making its voice clear in the Census 2010 in April-May as well as in the midterm elections in November 2010.
Photos from the conference available for viewing at:
The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) <http://www.usazeris.org/> is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.
