New York - The Azerbaijan Society of America (ASA) delegation attended a meeting at New York's City Hall on Wednesday, March 2, 2022. The ASA delegation met with Mr. Fred Kreizman, Commissioner, Community Affairs Unit; Mr. Michael Castro, Commissioner, Immigrant Affairs Unit; Aissata Camara, Deputy Commissioner, International Affairs Unit; Mahagany Linberger, Strategic Relationships Manager; Ravesa Bajo, Executive Director of Policy Initiatives & Special Projects, Mayor's office of Immigrant Affairs; Elnura Musazade, Operations Associate, Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs; Connor Martinez, Chief of Staff, Community Affairs Unit; Anastasia Yaskove, Brooklyn Borough Director; Andrew Kunkes, Director of Emergency Relief and Recovery.

The ASA delegation was headed by Tomris Azeri, ASA President, and Board Members Sevinj Azimov, Leyla Aslanova, Nigar Panahova, Erik Yevdayev and Anowar Hossain.

Important projects were discussed at the meeting and ASA asked that the Mayor's office collaborate with ASA in these projects. Under discussion were the following:

American Museum of Natural History in NYC
ASA discussed the glaring omission of Azerbaijan in any exhibition at the museum. American Museum of Natural History is the largest natural history museum in the world. It is also known as one of the world’s largest preeminent institutions for scientific research and education. The inclusion of Azerbaijan in the Caucasus exhibits is imperative.

Celebrating Novruz
This special holiday held in March celebrates life and is the most important holiday for Azerbaijanis. It contributes to cultural diversity and friendship among people of different communities. We encouraged recognition of this holiday by the city.

Celebrating May 28

Republic Day, May 28th, is a very important day for the Azerbaijani-American community. On this day in 1918, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was founded as the first secular, democratic state in the Muslim World. This year, recognition of May 28th is especially important because our organization, the Azerbaijan Society of America, is also celebrating 65 years of establishment. ASA is the first organization representing Azerbaijan in the USA. In America, we were free to raise Azerbaijan's flag and America gave us the freedom to keep Azerbaijan alive, even when Azerbaijan was not on the world map.

The ASA delegation also discussed holding a joint seminar on building a strategy to promote strong diaspora engagement in the United States. This would Involve education within the communities to better understand the US Political system. Also included would be: Engaging, developing and understanding the voting process in local, state and federal elections; building consensus and taking a united stand on those issues of importance to our communities; how to create effective campaigns and activism for important issues; and how to optimize the use of traditional and social media to generate support.

ASA realizes that this type of community education is important not only for the Azerbaijani-American community, but for other communities as well. Therefore, we encourage the City of New York to engage all diaspora communities in this type of education and encouraged their collaborative efforts.

Our heartfelt gratitude to Mayor Adams for supporting Azerbaijan Society of America for many years.

We look forward to continuing healthy, positive and growing collaboration with Mayor Eric Adams and his new staff.