The year of 2012 marks the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s membership in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Baku having joined the OSCE on January 30, 1992. Our organization traces its origins to the détente period of the early 1970s, when the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE) was created to serve as a multilateral forum for dialogue and negotiation between East and West.  After meetings lasting more than two years in Helsinki and Geneva, the CSCE reached agreement on the Helsinki Final Act, which was signed on 1 August 1975. ...

The Scientific-Religious Council of the Administration of Muslims of the Caucasus has expressed concern about the appearance of statements and articles by Iranian religious leaders criticizing Azerbaijan, pointed to the rebirth of Islam in Azerbaijan since the end of Soviet times, but reaffirmed that “a secular state is the choice of [the Azerbaijani] people,” and insisted that Azerbaijan wants to live in peace and harmony with its neighbors and expects them to support rather than block Baku’s efforts to end Armenia’s occupation of Azerbaijani territory. In a 900-word declaration...

The Revolutionary committee (Revkom) established with the direct participation of Turkey declared in Gumri, on November 28, 1920, about the victory of Soviet power in Armenia, while a day later, the Revkom formed by the Bolsheviks in the district city of Kazakh in the west of Azerbaijan also proclaimed Soviet power in Armenia.  However, in order to give the new structure a legitimate character and to avoid the possible dissatisfaction of the Turks, the Soviet-organized Revkom listed as its place of formation the Armenian city of Dilizhan.  The Revkom itself reached Dilizhan onl...