UPDATE - Around 40M Azerbaijanis living outside country denied access to education in native language: President

ADDS MORE REMARKS FROM AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT

By Ceyhun Alizade

ANKARA (AA) - Around 40 million Azerbaijanis living outside of the country do not have access to education in their native language, President Ilham Aliyev said at a Turkic grouping summit on Friday.

Speaking at the meeting of the Organization of Turkic States leaders in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Aliyev said: "The Turkic world does not consist only of independent Turkic states. Its geographical boundaries are wider. I believe that the time has come to constantly keep in mind within the organization issues such as the protection of the rights, security, national identity, as well as preventing the assimilation of our compatriots living beyond the countries, members of the Organization of Turkic States."

Underlining that young people in the Turkic world "should have the opportunity to study in their mother tongue in schools in the countries of their residence," he said that "unfortunately, the majority of the 40 million Azerbaijanis living outside Azerbaijan are deprived of these opportunities."

"Necessary steps should be taken in this direction," he stressed, pointing to the "special attention" his country pays to ensuring the rights, freedoms, and security of Azerbaijanis living in foreign countries.

"We will continue our efforts so our compatriots, who were separated from the state of Azerbaijan due to bitter fate, preserve our language, traditions, and culture, remain loyal to the ideas of Azerbaijanism, and never cut ties with their historical homeland," he said.

Aliyev's remarks came amid rising tensions with neighboring Iran, where several million ethnic Azerbaijanis currently live and the Azerbaijani language is the second-most widely-spoken after Persian.

However, the language is not taught in schools and spoken Azerbaijani is under the heavy linguistic influence of Persian.

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned Azerbaijan's ambassador in Tehran to protest against "anti-Iranian propaganda" allegedly spread by Azerbaijani officials and media outlets.

Concerns have also risen in Tehran since the 2020 war between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia, which saw Baku liberate several cities, villages, and settlements from Armenian occupation in the Karabakh region and adjacent areas.

Iran also shares a border of 44 kilometers (about 27 miles) with Armenia that runs from the tripoint with Azerbaijan's exclave of Nakhchivan in the west to the tripoint with Azerbaijan in the east.

Aliyev also thanked "brotherly" Türkiye for the "successful chairmanship" of the Organization of Turkic States in the past year and wished success to Uzbekistan in its upcoming chairmanship, adding that since the Nakhchivan Summit of 2009, the organization has developed substantially.

The presidents of Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Türkiye, Hungary's prime minister, and the head of the upper house of Turkmenistan's parliament are participating the summit.

- Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur region

The Azerbaijani leader also noted that his country was carrying out "large-scale reconstruction work" in the territories it liberated in the Karabakh war, adding that Baku had launched a "great return" initiative to help bring back families that had previously lived in the region but were displaced during the nearly three decades of Armenian occupation.

Inviting the heads of Turkic countries to visit Karabakh and the Eastern Zangezur region, Aliyev said that last month, Azerbaijan and Armenia had officially recognized each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity through joint statements adopted in Prague and Sochi.

This "once again demonstrates that the Karabakh conflict was left in the past," he said, adding that "new opportunities" he been created in the region.

"Azerbaijan actively promotes the establishment of the Zangezur Corridor and carries out large-scale activities related to the corridor in its territory. All countries from the region will benefit from the opening of the Zangezur corridor," he said.

The region of Zangezur was once part of Azerbaijan but the Soviet Union gave it to Armenia, where it is now known as Syunik, in the 1920s. This deprived Azerbaijan of a direct overland route to Nakhchivan.

For the corridor, Azerbaijan has sought the construction of planned connections, including motorways and a 43-km (26.7-mi) railway.

Aliyev said in May that Baku had agreed with Yerevan on both rail and road links through the corridor.

Following its completion, the railway will link Azerbaijan with Iran, Armenia, and Nakhchivan. It will also link Türkiye with Russia through Azerbaijan. ***