Agshin Mehdiyev

Agshin Mehdiyev
Permanent Observer of OIC to EU
In office 1 December 2015 – present
Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to the United Nations
In office 30 November 2006 – April 2014
President	Ilham Aliyev
Preceded by	Yashar Aliyev
Personal details
Born	28 April 1949 Baku

Agshin Shafaat oglu Mehdiyev (Azerbaijani: Aqşin Şəfaət oğlu Mehdiyev; born 28 April 1949) is an Azerbaijani diplomat who has served as Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan since May 2014.Agshin Mehdiyev speaks Azerbaijani, Arabic, English, Russian and Turkish.

Early life

Agshin Mehdiyev was born in Baku, Azerbaijan on April 28, 1949. He graduated from Azerbaijan State University (faculty on oriental studies) in 1971. Between 1969-1970, he studied at the Cairo University. Later, from 1985 to 1987 he attended the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR in Moscow, where he obtained his PhD degree in history of international relations. Dr. Mehdiyev is Honorary Professor of Baku Eurasian University and the Baku State University since 2007.

Political career

Dr. Mehdiyev is a carrier diplomat and joined the diplomatic service in 1975. From 1971 to 1975 he worked at the Embassy of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in the Arab Republic of Egypt as an assistant to the counselor for economic affairs.In the course of his carrier, he served as Chief of International and Media Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR (1975-1977).

He worked, inter alia, at the different positions at the Embassy of the USSR in the Yemen Arab Republic (1977-1982) and also held various posts in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan SSR (1982-1985).

Dr. Mehdiyev also worked as Council-General at the Embassy of the USSR in the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen between 1987 and 1991 and received certificate of honor from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of USSR for personal brave and high professionalism during the release of Soviet sailors captured by pirates in Gulf of Aden. In 1991 he worked as Counselor, Director of Foreign Policy Department at the Embassy of the USSR in the Republic of Yemen. Following the independence of Azerbaijan, he was appointed as the first Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Republic of Yemen for the term 1991-1992.

From 1993 to 2001, he was the Head of the Europe, USA and Canada Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan.He was also the first Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe (2001-2006). During his term, the Council of Europe adopted a number of resolutions and documents related to the aggression of Armenia against the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Agshin Mehdiyev served as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations from November, 2006 to April 2014. During the term the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on “Situation in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan” and a number of other resolutions initiated by Azerbaijan. At the same time, Azerbaijan was elected as non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (2012-2013), twice assumed the presidency in the Security Council and successfully accomplished its term of office. During its tenure as Permanent Representative of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the UN, Agshin Mehdiyev was also non-resident Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Cuba (since February 2007), Nicaragua (since June 2008), Jamaica (since September 2008) and Venezuela (since October 2008). Period from May 2014 till November 2015 he served as Ambassador-at-Large at the Ministry of Foreign affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. From December 2015 he assigned as Permanent Observer of Organization of Islamic Cooperation to the European Union.