The role of embassies and the appointed ambassador in interstate relations is extremely important. If a conflict arises between two countries or if there is any political tension between them, the embassy, and by extension the ambassador, can help resolve the issue. The embassy can make decisions on various topics such as trade tariffs
Almost every ambassador's duties, responsibilities, and importance are the same. However, according to diplomatic tradition, some ambassadors are called “doyen ambassador”. “Doyen ambassador” comes from the French word doyen and is a special concept in diplomacy. This title is an unofficial designation given to the foreign ambassador who has served the longest among those accredited, i.e., officially active, in a country. Doyen ambassadors represent the diplomatic corps, i.e., all ambassadors, at certain events, take a prominent place in official ceremonies, and sometimes play a mediating role in diplomatic matters.
Modern.az has investigated which diplomats are currently doyen ambassadors.
Ayxan Hajizade, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stated in response to our website's inquiry that we currently have two doyen ambassadors:
“We have had some doyen ambassadors before. Our current doyen ambassadors are our ambassadors serving in Latvia and Uzbekistan - Elnur Sultanov and Huseyn Guliyev”.
Huseyn Guliyev, the doyen of foreign diplomats in Uzbekistan, is Azerbaijan's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Uzbekistan. He was born on June 23, 1946, in Nakhchivan city, Republic of Azerbaijan. Huseyn Guliyev, who graduated from the Azerbaijan State Institute of Oil and Chemistry named after M. Azizbayov in 1965-1970, is a chemical engineer by profession.
H. Guliyev began his diplomatic career in 1978. He served as First Secretary-Counselor at the USSR Embassy in Cyprus until 1982. From 1984 to 1990, he worked in the same position at the USSR Embassy in Turkey. From 2007 to 2009, he held the position of Head of Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and until 2012, he was Head of Directorate.
Since 2012, he has been the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Republic of Uzbekistan.
It should be noted that the ambassador is married and has two children and three grandchildren.
Elnur Sultanov, our ambassador in Latvia, was born on April 26, 1978, in Baku. He is married and has a child.
Elnur Sultanov began his diplomatic career in 1998. Thus, from 1998 to 2000, he served as an attaché at the Department for Europe, USA, and Canada of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. From 2000 to 2004, he was Third Secretary, Second Secretary, and First Secretary at the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Council of Europe. From 2006 to 2010, he served as Counselor at the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the Russian Federation. From 2010 to 2011, E. Sultanov served as Deputy Director of the Department for Human Rights, Democratization, and Humanitarian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and from 2011 to 2012, he held the position of Counselor at the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the USA.
Since July 26, 2021, he has been serving as Azerbaijan's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Latvia.
Prior to this, Elnur Sultanov served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Federative Republic of Brazil from 2012 to 2016. During that period, he was also accredited to the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the Republic of Suriname, the Republic of Ecuador, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
From 2017 to 2021, he also served as Secretary-General of the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and as Ambassador-at-Large.
He is fluent in English, Turkish, Russian, and Portuguese, and has a basic command of French, Spanish, and German.
