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Akbar Novruz

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The Western Azerbaijan Community (WAC) convened its next Board of Directors meeting on November 17, focusing on expanding international awareness of Western Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural heritage, Azernews reports.

At the meeting, Mahira Huseynova, chairwoman of the Keshkend district community of the Daralayaz district, proposed translating materials on the history and culture of Western Azerbaijan into foreign languages and promoting them widely abroad. She also stressed the importance of legal, organizational, and ideological preparation for the return process based on international law, suggesting that universities host conferences and that Western Azerbaijan TV be added to traditional broadcasting platforms.

WAC Chairman, MP Aziz Alakbarli, noted that President Ilham Aliyev’s remarks at the 80th anniversary of ANAS on November 3 placed additional responsibility on the Community. He highlighted the large-scale initiatives carried out in recent years and outlined the priority directions for future work.

Deputy Chairman Hikmet Babaoglu said the Community had entered a new stage following the President’s latest statements and emphasized the strategic goals for the upcoming period.

MP Aydin Mirzazade called the community’s activities an important political and legal development. She proposed publishing books about notable intellectuals from Western Azerbaijan, establishing a Western Azerbaijan museum, and intensifying outreach efforts.

Other participants including Honored Journalist Hasan Hasanov, head of the Western Azerbaijan History Department at ANAS’s Institute of History Jabi Bahramov, MPs Kamran Bayramov and Nazim Mustafa, NGO leader Rauf Zeyni, and academic Ibrahim Bayramov—stressed that the historical erasure attempts by Armenians do not change the fact that Western Azerbaijan is historically a Turkic land. They emphasized the full legal and moral right of deported Western Azerbaijanis to return to their homeland and underscored the need to expand educational and awareness campaigns domestically and internationally, including stronger social media outreach.

The meeting concluded with the adoption of specific tasks for the Community’s upcoming work and the formation of working groups to implement these directions.