Armenians spread false information in Romanian society: Azerbaijan-Romania Culture and Youth Association head

Day.Az: You founded the organization in 1998. What was the reason for its creation?

Igbal Hajiyev: Azerbaijan-Romania Culture and Youth Association was established in 2001 upon the initiative of the Azerbaijani embassy in Romania and the Romania-Azerbaijan Friendship Society which was also set up in 2001 two months earlier. The cause and a need to establish the association was unreliable information that was available in the Romanian society concerning the situation in Azerbaijan and, of course, the existence of Armenian communities, including the historical Armenian diaspora in Romania who spread false information in the Romanian society by their claims on historical Azerbaijani lands.

Q: How many Azerbaijanis live in Romania? How many members does your organization have? Does it include only Azerbaijanis?

A: Our organization has 250 members, only 10 of them are Azerbaijanis. Most of the members are Romanians, Tatars and Turkish people who are citizens of Romania, the Turkic-speaking peoples of other nations, such as the Moldavians, and all those who have respect and love for the people of Azerbaijan, history and culture of the country. There is a small number of Azerbaijanis in our organization due to the fact that about 35 Azerbaijanis live in Romania. Older people are members of Romania-Azerbaijan Friendship Society and young people and students are members of our youth organization. But our Diaspora is united and consolidated.

Our association works closely with the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with the Diaspora, is a member of the Congress of Azerbaijanis in Europe, works with youth organizations of various political parties in Romania, each of the Azerbaijani students and members of our organization promote reliable information about Azerbaijan in the universities in which they are educated .

Members of our organization help us to implement projects, to organize conferences on various topics like relations between the two nations and are involved in publishing and translating works of well-known Azerbaijani thinkers, poets and writers such as Fizuli, Bakhtiar Vahabzade, Anar and Romanian-Azerbaijani dictionaries and phrasebooks. Holy book of Muslims Koran and Azerbaijan’s folk epic “Dede Gorgud” were translated into Romanian language together with the Romania-Azerbaijan Friendship Society and Azerbaijani Embassy in Romania.

It is important to note activities and support by the Azerbaijani embassy in Romania which has helped in implementation of joint projects of our organizations for over 8 years.

On Sept. 28, an agreement on strategic partnership between Romania and Azerbaijan was signed during Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s official visit to Romania. At a press conference, Romanian President Mr. Traian Basescu said that Romania has signed an agreement on strategic partnership only with the United States and France so far. Azerbaijan is the third country. This fact once again shows the level of political relations between Romania and Azerbaijan.  

There are also two organizations that have contributed to relations between the two countries. They are Chamber of Commerce of Azerbaijan and Romania, which promotes economic relations between countries and, of course, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation's Representation in Romania which has made a great contribution to strengthening of friendly relations between the two countries through its humanitarian action and support for such sectors as education, culture and charity.

Day.Az