Welcome to the Houston-Baku Sister Cities Association (HBSCA), an association that strives to connect the Houston metropolitan area and the city of Baku through cooperation in business, culture and education.  We seek to promote Baku heritage and traditions and Azeri culture through extensive community outreach, broad assistance to people in need and intercultural exchange.

Before you browse further into our website, we would like to give you a brief overview of the history of our association which was officially formed during the Cold War by a group of energetic Houstonians.

The initiative of establishing Sister Cities came from US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  In an effort to lessen the chance of future world conflicts, the President proposed a people-to-people network between the United States and other nations that would involve people and organized groups at all levels of society. US cities were encouraged to partner with cities in other countries and create citizen diplomacy networks to build global cooperation, promote cultural understanding and stimulate economic development.  These programs were to be based on two-way communication that would mutually benefit those partnering communities. 

In response to this call for citizen diplomacy, Mayor Louis Welch took the first steps in bonding the two world oil capitals in the 1970’s.  Eventually, after the required formalities had been completed, the Houston Baku Sister City Association was officially established in April 1976 under Mayor Fred Hofheinz.  More stories about those early days of HBSCA can be found in an article Sister Cities: Baku and Houston published in Azerbaijan International magazine.

Since then, HBSCA has been run by volunteers as a non-profit organization (since 2008 exempt from Federal tax under 501(c)(3) code of IRS).  Under the umbrella of Sister Cities International, HBSCA is an affiliate of the Sister Cities of Houston program, which is managed by the Houston Mayor’s International Protocol Alliance office.  We work closely with the Azerbaijan Embassy in Washington and with government and municipal officials in Baku.  We manage Azerbaijan’s representation at public events such as the Houston International Festival and the United Nations Food Festival, arrange cultural and sports performances and art exhibitions, host business delegations from Azerbaijan and bring the communities together to honor Azerbaijan’s national holidays.  

We hope you enjoy your visit to our website and we look forward to seeing you again.  Thank you for your interest in HBSCA!

Irada Akhoundova,
HBSCA President