Shahriyar Majidzadeh is the co-founder and director of the Kitabistan Research Center.

He began his public engagement in 2011 by founding the newspaper Etatist. In 2012, he launched the online newspaper Etatist.com to promote civic journalism in Azerbaijan, serving as its editor-in-chief. This online newspaper was notable for being the first in Azerbaijan that allowed anyone to directly submit articles and posts.

In 2012, he founded the National Idea Center, a youth organization, and was elected as its chairman. During his leadership from 2012 to 2018, the center organized more than 60 open seminars, various events, and youth discussions that featured local socio-political figures, poets, writers, professors, and historians. Additionally, it hosted open seminars for representatives of the diplomatic corps and local managers of transnational companies. The center also established a library, a philosophy club, a reading club, and socio-political research groups.

Shahriyar Majidzadeh studied International Law at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv from 2005 to 2009, graduating with honours.

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Malak Hajiyeva is the co-founder and chairperson of Kitabistan Research Center.

She oversees the Center's research department and leads "Kitabistan Talks" and "Nordic Talks" projects, as well as "Gender Kitabistan," "Green Kitabistan," and the "KitabistanvsDisInfo" initiatives. Within the framework of the "Veritas Dialogues" project, which is part of the KitabistanvsDisInfo initiative, Malak conducts interviews with ambassadors from developed countries in Azerbaijan, as well as with experts from leading institutions and foreign university professors.

From 2013 to 2019, she worked as a journalist for the online newspaper Etatist.com. Before that, she led the International Relations Department at the National Idea Center youth organization from 2016 to 2018. During her tenure at the NIC, she established both the Diplomacy School and the Leadership School, which together graduated over 200 individuals. Additionally, she served on the board of the women's movement "I Demand", the women's wing of the NIC.
Malak Hajiyeva worked at the UNDP Azerbaijan office from 2019 to 2020. She graduated from the USA Congressional Office for International Leadership's Open World Program on “Women in Politics and Civil Society” in 2018. Additionally, she is a fellow of the ifa’s (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) “Cross Culture Programme,” which is supported by the German Foreign Ministry. In 2022, she worked at The Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law, Germany’s most prestigious think tank, as part of the CCP fellowship. Furthermore, she is an alumna of the McKinsey “Forward - Advanced Level” program.
Malak Hajiyeva is currently the ambassador of the Womenpreneur Initiative, a prestigious organization based in Belgium that supports women's social entrepreneurship. She is also an honorary citizen of the State of Nebraska.

Malak received her bachelor's degree in International Relations from Baku Slavic University (2008-2012) and her master's degree in International Relations and Regional Studies from Azerbaijan University of Languages (2013-2015).
 

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