Zaza Vashakmadze, the State Agency for Religious Affairs Chairperson, Giorgi Ukleba, the Deputy Chairperson, and Gvantsa Tskhovrebadze, the Protocol Manager, met with Valeh Hajiyev, the First Deputy Chairperson of the State Committee for Work with the Diaspora of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
Valeh Hajiyev briefed the members of the delegation on the policy of the State of Azerbaijan in relations with the Diaspora and expressed gratitude to the Georgian state, where ethnic Azerbaijanis feel safe and secure, have access to education and information in their mother tongue, where their religious rights are protected and where they feel like Georgia is their homeland. However, in order to better integrate, it is desirable for Azerbaijanis living in Georgia to pay more attention to learning the Georgian language. He expressed hope that the friendship between Georgia and Azerbaijan will continue in the future and expressed the unwavering support of the Azerbaijani state for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.
The Chairperson of the Religion Agency underlined the long tradition of Georgian-Azerbaijani relations and noted the unique character of Georgian Islam; as an example, he talked about Shiites and Sunnis attending the service in the same mosque. Zaza Vashakmadze inquired about the rights of ethnic Georgians living in Azerbaijan in terms of their ethnic, cultural, and religious rights. The Chairperson of the Religion Agency expressed his desire to visit the place to get better acquainted with the situation.
The meeting was attended by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia to the Republic of Azerbaijan Zurab Pataradze, the Adviser to the Ambassador Giorgi Buachidze, the First Secretary of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Georgia Anar Rasulov, and staff of the State Committee for Religious Associations.
The delegation arrived in Baku on August 26. The delegation members laid flowers at the monument to the prominent political figure and national leader of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. The second President of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev, has made a special contribution to strengthening Georgian-Azerbaijani relations and the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline; known as the "Project of the Century."
