A word from the President of the Association
Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to the Azerbaijan Arbitration Association!
As you may know, Azerbaijan is at the crossroads between the East and the West and, throughout history, has played an important political, economic, cultural and geopolitical role in the region. The Silk Road passed through most of the cities of what is now known as Azerbaijan, making it one of the centers of commercial and intercultural exchanges. The country is also known for its rich natural resources, such as oil, natural gas, iodobromide waters, lead, zinc, iron, and copper ores, nepheline syenites (which is utilized in the production of aluminum), common salt and a great variety of building materials, including marl, limestone, and marble. Agriculture in the country has also considerably developed over the past decades with the production of grain, raw cotton, grapes, vegetables, fruits, walnut and hazelnut.
These geographical, historical and economic factors favor of course the development of international trade, as well as investments, both inbound and outbound. In such a flourishing and prosperous context, with all the transactions that are entered into on a daily basis, international arbitration cannot ignore Azerbaijan; nor can Azerbaijan ignore international arbitration. The Azerbaijan Arbitration Association thus strives to promote international arbitration as a dispute resolution mechanism corresponding to the needs of the growing Azeri market. Not to mention Azerbaijan’s geographical location, namely a neighbor to Turkey, Russia, Iran and the Caucasus countries, as well as its heterogenous culture developed under the influence of the Persian, Ottoman, and Caucasian cultures, all of which contribute to making Azerbaijan a neutral international arbitration venue.
The Azerbaijan Arbitration Association has the ambition of bringing together lawyers from around the world who are willing to cooperate in achieving these goals through conferences and webinars, publications, networking events, teaching, research and, most importantly, the annual Azerbaijan Arbitration Day (AzAD). We invite practitioners, academics, students, arbitrators and magistrates to join the Association as members and to participate in the activities of the Association.
Yours faithfully,
Professor Kamalia Mehtiyeva
President of the Azerbaijan Arbitration Association