Araz Boyukagha oghlu Azimov (, born 13 June 1962,

Baku Baku (, ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Azerbaijan, largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is below sea level, which makes it the List of capital ci ...

), is the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the

Government of Azerbaijan The politics of Azerbaijan take place in an Authoritarianism, authoritarian system where elections are not free and fair, political opponents are repressed, civil rights are limited, human rights in Azerbaijan, human rights abuses are widespread ...

, a position he has held since 1994.

Early life

Azimov was born in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

on 13 June 1962. From 1978 to 1984, he studied at the Oriental Studies faculty of Azerbaijan State University, now

Baku State University Baku State University (BSU) (BDU; ) is a public university located in Baku, Azerbaijan. Established on 1 September 1919 by the Parliament of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, the university started with faculties of history and philology, physics ...

, where he majored in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

language studies. After graduation, he was an announcer in the Foreign Service department of the Azerbaijan State Teleradio Company, where he served until 1989, during which time he was also a military translator in Afghanistan.

Political career

Azimov started his diplomatic career in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral r ...

of the

Azerbaijani SSR The Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, also referred to as the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic, Azerbaijan SSR, Azerbaijani SSR, AzSSR, Soviet Azerbaijan or simply Azerbaijan, was one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union be ...

in 1989. He served there as a second and first secretary at the Department of Information until 1991. In 1991 and 1992, Azimov was deputy director at the same department. In 1992, he was appointed director of the Department of International Organizations in the Ministry. From 1994 until the present, he has been Deputy Foreign Minister in the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan () is a Cabinet of Azerbaijan, Cabinet-level governmental agency of Azerbaijan Republic in charge of conducting and designing Foreign relations of Azerbaijan, the country's foreign policy. The ministry w ...

. His diplomatic rank is

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

. He was awarded the For service to the Fatherland Order (2nd class) of

by President

Ilham Aliyev Ilham Heydar Oghlu Aliyev (born 24 December 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician who has been the fourth president of Azerbaijan since 2003. He is also the leader of the New Azerbaijan Party since 2005. The son and second child of former Aze ...

in July 2019.

Personal life

Azimov is married and has one child. In addition to his native Azerbaijani, he speaks fluent English, Russian,

and Turkish.

Attention in American media

Azimov received attention in the American media in 2011 in a Forbes magazine article. The article asserts that

Samir Sharifov Samir Rauf oghlu Sharifov (; born 7 September 1961) is an Azerbaijani politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan (since 2025), former Minister of Finance of the Republic of Azerbaijan (2006-2025). Early life Sharifov was b ...

and

George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...

were engaging in political activity that could "push the region toward war." Mr. Azimov is quoted in the article as saying that Soros' involvement with Sharifov might push the region toward war: "Armenia is interested in war, more so than Azerbaijan. They want to gain further justification of the occupation in Karabakh, so they would be looking for an opportunity to provoke. So war is a possibility but it will only start with a provocation."Richard Minite

''Forbes'' magazine, September 9, 2011

External links

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azimov, Araz Living people Diplomats from Baku 1962 births Baku State University alumni