On 11 June 2014 a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the IISH and the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences on the “necessity of developing international relations, in view of the common interests in the area of academic research”.
The Memorandum was signed by the Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies - which is affiliated to the Academy - Professor Govhar Bakhshali Bakhshaliyeva and professor Touraj Atabaki, the Head of the Middle East and Central Asia Desk of the IISH.
To realize the cooperation between two institutes, an international conference in Baku on social history of the First World War with reference to the Eastern Front, the Ottoman Empire, Mesopotamia, Persia, the Caucasus and Central Asia will be held in 2015.
The Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) is the main scientific organization in the Azerbaijan Republic and was founded in 1945. The Institute of Oriental Studies was founded in 1958 by the bylaw of Soviet of Ministers of the Republic. During the years of its activity the collaborators of the institute studied the history of Middle East Countries, social-cultural development of the peoples of this region and their cultural-historical relations with Azerbaijan during centuries. More than 400 scientific books and several thousands scientific articles of the institute's collaborators were published up until now.