LEWISTON – A native of Azerbaijan will give a brief introduction to the history, culture and trade opportunities of that Eurasian country at 9 a.m. Monday, April 28, at the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn College.

Gassan Akhmedov will speak in Function Room 170. A light breakfast will be served.

Akhmedov is a scholar of Transcaucasian cultural linguistics and a marine designer who lives and works in Maine’s Midcoast region. He will begin his presentation with a brief history of his home country and its people.

For example, Azerbaijan’s capital of Baku is known as having the finest port on the Caspian Sea. Formerly a Silk Road trading center, Baku also was the site of the first oil boom that drove the Eurasian economy for more than a century.

Akhmedov also will discuss the significance of Azerbaijan’s geographic position, as well as the wealth of opportunities for international business and trade.

He will focus on the contemporary political, social and economic climate of Azerbaijan, present-day American and Azeri political and economic relations and the legal structure as it applies to foreign investors.

The talk is sponsored by the International Students Organization at Lewiston-Auburn. For more information, contact Kristopher McClure or Barry H. Rodrigue in office No. 169; telephone (207)-753-6574 or e-mail: [email protected].