ASIAN GROUPS SIGN COOPERATIVE MEMORANDUM

Washington, D.C. - The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) and U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) have signed a Memorandum on Strategic Cooperation, Promotion and Exchange of links and information between their two organizations and communities in the interests of the entire Azerbaijani-American, as well as Turkic-American, and Japanese-American, as well as Asian-American, communities. 

Under this Memorandum, the two organizations intend to promote cooperation which will lead to information exchange and sharing, greater cooperation, invitation to and attendance at each others' events, to support each others' grassroots advocacy and outreach efforts, to promote congressional and government links, advance university teaching, research and scholarship in their members' academic institutions, to promote greater understanding and links between the two communities, as well as between their ancestral homelands. This Memorandum is the first-ever formal step towards greater cooperation between the two organizations and the Azerbaijani-American and Japanese-American communities.
 
Cooperation between the organizations will involve the following general areas: 

 · Information sharing
 · Congressional and legislative outreach
 · Academic, scholarly, trade & economic events, conferences, seminars and forums
 · Sports events and competitions
 · Staff and student exchanges 
 · Researcher exchange programs 
 · University, academic and youth-level outreach 

To implement this Memorandum, JACL and USAN will establish a regular dialog on the level of its Boards of Directors. These designated individuals shall consider and approve the program of activities for cooperation under the Memorandum. Meetings of the designated individuals shall be held in Washington D.C. or as requested by either party contingent upon the consent of the other party.  

The U.S. Azeris Network (USAN) is a registered non-profit, non-partisan, non-sectarian genuine grassroots advocacy and voter education network that is facilitating political activism and efforts by the Azerbaijani-Americans and other Turkic-Americans and their associations, organizations, councils, conferences, and other formal, semi-formal and informal groups, on federal, state and local levels. USAN is the first nationwide grassroots organization uniting Azerbaijani-Americans, being created by the grassroots, for the grassroots.

Founded in 1929, the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) is the oldest and largest Asian American civil rights organization in the United States. The JACL monitors and responds to issues that threaten the civil and human rights of all Americans and implements strategies to effect positive social change, particularly to the Asian American Pacific Islander community. The JACL strives to promote a world that honors diversity by respecting values of fairness, equality and social justice. The JACL is a national non-profit organization.  Its leaders and members also work to promote cultural, educational and social values, and to preserve the heritage and legacy of the Japanese American community.