Visits of ANKOS President İsmail Çetinkaya to Azerbaijan

President of the Anatolian University Libraries Consortium (ANKOS), İsmail Çetinkaya, paid an official visit to Azerbaijan on August 18–19, 2025, where he held a series of meetings. As part of the program, high-level discussions were conducted at the National Aviation Academy (MAA) and Baku State University (BSU).

Visit to the National Aviation Academy

On August 18, 2025, Çetinkaya visited the National Aviation Academy, where he met with the First Vice-Rector of the Academy, Prof. Ədalət Səmədov, Vice-Rector Assoc. Prof. Gülnarə Əhmədova, and Library Director Günel Şıxəliyeva. The meeting focused on potential cooperation between ANKOS and MAA, including access to scientific journals, publishing, joint projects in the field of librarianship, and mutual exchange of experience. In addition, representatives of the Academy were invited to attend the ANKOSLink2025 International Conference, which will be held at the Presidential Library on November 4–6, 2025.

Visit to Baku State University

The second stop of Çetinkaya’s visit was Baku State University. The university’s rector, Prof. Dr. Elçin Babayev, welcomed the guest and spoke about the role of library services in the university’s digitalization process. Babayev emphasized that the Baku State University Scientific Library has served as a methodological center for higher education libraries across the country for more than 50 years and that national cooperation has been strengthened through the Azerbaijan Library Information Consortium (AzKİK), which currently includes 15 member universities.

ANKOS President Çetinkaya, in turn, highlighted the contributions of the annually held ANKOSLink Conference in Türkiye to the regional and international library community. He also underlined the importance of Baku State University’s position as the center of scientific librarianship in Azerbaijan in terms of fostering international cooperation.

During the visits, discussions were held on expanding cooperation opportunities between Turkish and Azerbaijani universities in the field of library and information services.