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Due to his background,
Ercüment Kılıç has been promoting Azerbaijan in various
parts of the world for the last 25 years.
Specifically prior to their declarations of
independence, just as all the other Central Asian
republics, Azerbaijan was not a part of the general
knowledge of the common people of the world. Prior the
the happy eventuality of Azerbaijan's recognition after
the 1990s by people all over the world, it was Ercüment
Kılıç who introduced and promoted the word "Azerbaijan"
to the common man on the street in many parts of the
world. The previous opportunity of many people of having
been introduced to the culture of Azerbaijan, and its
music and dance, has later on allowed them to feel more
positively towards Azerbaijan as she was now becoming
more well known, and they have been more excited towards
Azerbaijan's taking her proper place in the world arena.
Although Ercüment Kılıç's earlier work until 1990 for
Azerbaijan has been more in the cultural scene, later on
it became more political. A visit by an American
congressman in 1990 to Azerbaijan which was arranged and
organized by Ercüment Kılıç set the stage for an event
which was historical in proportion. Democrat Congressman
Jim Moody become the first such person ever to visit
Azerbaijan. This visit which took place only a month
after the Russian tanks to crushed hundreds of Azeri in
Baku streets, and the sincere sadness which Mr. Moody
felt about the events made this
already-a-friend-of-Turkey, a friend of Azerbaijan as
well. After returning back to the US, the speech Mr.
Moody delivered on the floor of the congress expressing
his impressions, later on resonated in the American
media.
Within the recent years, Ercüment Kılıç has raised
issues concerning Azerbaijan such as Karabag,
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipe, and the issue of the
million homeless Azeri refugees in all of his meetings
with the American administration, congressmen, and the
media.
Finally, following the annual visit of an ATAA
delegation to Turkey in June 2004, Ercüment Kılıç
visited Azerbaijan with a delegation of 17 Turks from
America, and held meetings with all the high-level
authorities as well as the president of Azerbaijan, Mr.
Ilham Aliyev.
Besides Azerbaijanis, during his years in the US, Kılıç
has come to the aid of, and help the causes of Turkmen
of Iraq, Uigur Turks, Turkish Cypriots, and the Crimean
Turks.
The conference which Ercüment Kılıç organized in
Washington, DC for the legendary Uigur leader Erkin
Alptekin was one of the best ever organized in terms of
the quality of the attendees and their numbers. Many
respectable American media giants such as The Washington
Post, The New York Times have attended this conference
and announced the context of the conference in
noticeable articles. Also attending this conference were
the members of the Chinese Embassy, The US State
Department, and people form Washington think tanks.
A separate trip has been organized to Crimea for Mr. Jim
Moody to travel to Ukraine, and a meeting has been
arranged with the legendary leader of the Crimean
freedom fighters, Mr. Mustafa Cemiloglu. In the
following periods, the plight of the Crimeans have been
told in the US.
Within the last two years a warm relation between the
Washington representative of Turkmen Peoples Front, Mr.
Orhan Ketene and ATAA has been created. Mr. Ketene has
been invited and included in visits to the US Congress
and the administration. In addition, in all other
meetings with all the US authorities, the issue of the
Turkmen has been brought on the table.
Finally, especially with 2004, under the leadership of
Kılıç, ATAA has done extensive work for Turkish Cypriots
through conferences, meetings, and media related
endeavors.
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