As COP29 comes around, politicians, journalists, analysts, and activists alike should make a concerted effort to refer correctly to the people and language of Azerbaijan as do the people who live there: “Azerbaijanis” and “Azerbaijani,” respectively, reads an article posted in the Real Clear Energy by Prof. Brenda Shaffer, the faculty member of the US Naval Postgraduate School, and Damjan Krnjević Mišković, the professor of Practice at ADA University in Baku, Azerbaijan, and director for Policy Research, Analysis, and Publications at its Institute for Development and Diplomacy (IDD), Report informs.

“What is the source of this widespread misnomer? At first glance, it could be because the term Azerbaijani is five syllables long, and so “Azeri” is used as a shorthand.

Yet, no media outlet calls the US state of California “Calif.” Micronesia is also called by its full name. And don’t forget Papua New Guinea, recently mentioned by President Biden, and those countries combined from multiple regions like Bosnia and Herzegovina and Antigua and Barbuda. Other nations and languages have five syllable names, such as Indonesian and Macedonian, and the media doesn’t shorten them,” the authors wrote.