"On May 28, 1918, we established the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, which was the first parliamentary republic in the Muslim world," Jamshidov told The Korea Times.

In the period of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan, parliamentary experience was gained in two stages. The first lasted from May 27 to Nov. 19 in 1918.

On May 28, the parliament declared the independence of Azerbaijan, assumed governmental control and adopted the historical Declaration of Independence.

For six months, the parliament consisting of 44 turkic-moslem members functioned under the name of the National Board of Azerbaijan and adopted very important historical decisions.

The second period of parliamentary experience of the Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan or the Baku period, went from Dec. 7, 1918 and lasted till April 27, 1920. On Sept. 1, 1919, the parliament established the Baku State University.

"So we are celebrating our Day of the Republic. Since independence, we have established diplomatic relations with many countries such as the United States and other European nations," the ambassador said.

Jamshidov put great emphasis on the improving relations between South Korea and Azerbaijan.

"In the past few years, bilateral relations improved a lot," he said. "For example, President Roh Moo-hyun visited Azerbaijan in May, 2006 and our President Ilham Aliyev visited Korea last month, which shows how our relations have got closer."

Actually, he had good reason to say that.

The Embassy of Azerbaijan was officially established in Seoul on Feb. 22, 2007, in order to conduct a variety of missions. The Korean Embassy was set up in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku in March 2006.

Last year alone, the two countries signed 14 agreements and they are ready to sign more this year. The agreements were made in the fields of construction, trade, civil aviation, shipping building and highway construction among others, according to the ambassador.

"Basically, we opened our embassy to promote bilateral relations and mutual interest through closer political and economic relations," he said. "Particularly, we'd like to promote our country to Koreans because they do not know much about Azerbaijan."

One of the promotions will be tourism as the embassy is working with a Korean travel agency to introduce a package for Azerbaijan.

"We have wonderful nature and many tourist attractions, and we'd like more Koreans to visit our country," he said.

Korea established diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan in March 1992.

By Yoon Won-sup

/www.koreatimes.co.kr/