Scotsman appointed as UK's new ambassador to Azerbaijan
dailyrecord.co.ukA proudly kilt-wearing Scot who helped survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami has been appointed as the UK's new ambassador to Azerbaijan.Fergus Auld, from Edinburgh, has taken up the post at a sensitive time, given that the Caucasus nation borders both Russia and Iran.
But the life-long diplomat has seized the role with zest, spending a year learning Azerbaijani beforehand and wearing a kilt for his first meeting with the country's president Ilham Aliyev.The dad-of-three was one of the first to be deployed to Thailand to help survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which killed over 200,000 people.
And he's getting stuck into his new job, already putting pressure on Azerbaijan to stand against Russia's invasion of Ukraine and squeezing the country on its mixed human rights record.The 49-year-old said: “President Aliyev was completely poker faced when I bounded up in the kilt, but the pictures generated a lot of reaction in Azerbaijan.
It is amazing how popular the film Braveheart is here. I’ve met people who’ve said they’ve watched it 15 times.“[President Aliyev] told me: ‘In 20 years as President, I’ve never had an ambassador arrive in the country with language skills like that.
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