The Nizami Ganjavi International Center’s web discussion themed “The South Caucasus: Regional Development and Prospective for Cooperation” has been held with the participation of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
Opening the discussions, the former Vice President of the World Bank and co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Ismail Serageldin, said:
- Mr. President, Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, members and friends of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center!
This is a significant day for the center. We are very glad that President Ilham Aliyev is joining our dialogue and will share his plans and wishes related to the region. Mr. President, eight years ago you asked to create an International Center to promote the legacy of brilliant Azerbaijani poet Nizami Ganjavi. International members joined the organization and a board was set up. Then co-chairs were elected to determine the directions of activity and program of the Center, and the Secretary General was appointed.
Mr. President, you have shown us confidence, and we hope that we have managed to live up to it. A lot has been done in eight years, and you have provided it with a great deal of support. The Nizami Ganjavi International Center is gradually gaining more and more popularity at the international level. The Baku Global Forum has become the paramount event in the region and taken a special place in the international calendar. Many prominent personalities of the world have taken part in these events. In addition to the forum, the Center has organized many other events, brought up for discussions issues related to the Balkans, the South Caucasus and Europe. Then our organization expanded its international activities, adopted a strategy of forging relations with the United States and the UN, and also began to pay attention to an increasingly developing China.
Mr. President, in all spheres of our activities we promoted the legacy of Nizami and the position of Azerbaijan as a country with a rich culture. We have become a platform for the discussion of the challenges facing humanity. The Nizami Ganjavi International Center has become known as a platform for learning, tolerance, dialogue and mutual understanding. But then the pandemic occurred. We had to postpone the Baku Global Forum, which was initially scheduled for 2020. At the same time, you will probably be pleased with the fact that in the coming months of 2021 we intend to successfully hold the Baku Global Forum. According to the instructions of the Board, we, together with the Secretariat headed by Secretary General Rovshan Muradov, are closely cooperating with Hikmat Hajiyev and your protocol service on the organization of the “Baku Global Forum 2021” so that this event is held in accordance with the calendar and our wishes.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions and postponements of visits, our Center is working hard. We are making full use of new technologies and doing our best. We have held 28 conferences and 90 sessions. Our events featured a total of 370 speakers and brought together participants from 60 countries. We have covered all topics from global solidarity in the face of the pandemic to the emerging world order and ways to strengthen multilateralism. The issues of food security, education and the role of women in achieving peace have also been discussed. In doing all this work, we have established partnerships with influential organizations, famous laureates and individuals. We have doubled the number of our friends and partners. We are grateful to the representative from China, PhD Shan, for co-chairing our international council of friends.
Along with all these activities, we are very active in efforts and solidarity initiatives in the fight against the pandemic and its consequences. We are sure that Your Excellency has received positive feedback of this work from many places. We have also published and distributed numerous materials. Many renowned individuals have been involved in this work. Our activities are also appreciated by the media. Over the past year, we received 12 letters of appreciation. A significant part of them are related to the “Helping People in Need” initiatives. Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is currently working on a final letter to be presented on our behalf to G-7 and G-20.
If we look at last year, we can say that this period will be remembered by growing international authority of the Center, hard work, the expansion of cooperation with important international organizations and academies of sciences and scientific institutes of the world. We have strengthened our positions in the media. We hope that in the coming weeks we will complete the work that was reported to Your Excellency during our last meeting.
Mr. President, I can speak for a long time. However, I know that everyone wants to listen to you. I promise that in the near future, after completing the report on our work, we will present it to your attention and distribute it at the Global Forum this year. We do hope that Your Excellency will be pleased with the activities of the Center both before and after the pandemic.
And now, with your permission, I will give the floor to co-chair Vaira Vike-Freiberga.
Thank you.
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.
Former President of the Republic of Latvia, co-chair of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center Vaira Vike-Freiberga said:
- Your Excellency, Mr. President! Ladies and Gentlemen!
Today we feel a sense of boundless pride due to our participation in a dialogue between the International Center of Nizami Ganjavi and the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev. We will begin our meeting with a speech by the President. Then we will move on to questions and answers. We are grateful to Mr. President for accepting our invitation.
Mr. President, we look forward to your view on the position of Azerbaijan in this difficult time for the planet, your plans related to the future of the country and how they are in line with the global agenda. Mr. President, we are looking forward to your words.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made a speech at the event.
Speech of President Ilham Aliyev
-Dear co-chairs of the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Madame Vike-Freiberga and Mr. Serageldin.
First of all I would like to greet all the participants of today’s discussion. I would like to use this opportunity to express gratitude to the co-chairs and members of Nizami Center for initiating this discussion. Because I think it’s very timely and the topics which you have proposed-South Caucasus: Regional development and Prospective for Cooperation-I think it’s now one of the important topics on the global agenda because there have been very radical changes in the South Caucasus recently.
Of course the new situation needs new approaches. But first of all I would like to congratulate Nizami Ganjavi International Center for its excellent performance. During the time of the pandemic the center adjusted itself very wisely to a new situation and regardless the situation with the pandemic continued its activity and continued in a new form. But as Mr. Serageldin said we hope to get together in Azerbaijan later this year to organize our regular Baku Global Forum. Also, during these eight years of active performance the center became one of the leading international institutions in the world and its broad activity actually serves the cause of peace, cooperation, security, stability in the world. Members of the center are well-known, famous world politicians who run countries and international organizations for many years. So your experience really is unique. So, such a concentration of experience under one roof is really I think a very unique in today’s world. With respect to Azerbaijan’s views on what happened and what is going to happen. Of course, first of all I would like to say that the recent development in the region, the second Karabakh war, radically changed the situation. Therefore, the need for new approaches, the need for a new agenda for South Caucasus. I fully appreciate the topic of the discussion, regional development and prospective for cooperation, because that is what we really need.
Due to the fact of occupation which lasted almost 30 years, Azerbaijan openly declared its position that we will not cooperate with Armenia until the territories are liberated. I think that Armenia itself now understands that they made a very big mistake, because they lost time. If we look at today’s situation in Armenia we will see that the situation is much worse than when Armenia became an independent country. Because today Armenia doesn’t have army. It has been totally destroyed, it’s been in permanent political crisis for more than six months.
There is a big degree of mistrust in society, mutual accusations and some political leaders’ rhetoric is beyond any acceptable framework. So, they lost time, they were deprived of the initiatives of Azerbaijan with respect to energy and transportation development and finally they lost the territories which they occupied and the territories which never belonged to them neither by history nor by international law. But now, after the conflict is over, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been resolved, has been resolved primarily by Azerbaijan and then by a joint declaration of 10 November last year we need to look to the future. Despite 30 years of occupation and large-scale destruction and devastation on the liberated territories, Azerbaijan is ready to look to the future, to plan its future as a part of integrated region of the South Caucasus. We hope that the time will come that we will really talk about active cooperation in the South Caucasus and integration. We all already made very important proposals and initiatives, by the way, which are reflected in the joint declaration of 10 November 2020, particularly with respect to opening of communications and opening new transportation corridors. I can tell you that the work have already started, on implementation of this project. Azerbaijan already allocated technical and financial resources for that. And when Zangazur corridor opens, it will open new opportunities for all the countries of the region. Therefore, I would like to say that Azerbaijan is open for cooperation, open for planning our common future, because we are neighbors whether we like it or not. We have to live side by side, and we need to learn once again how to live side by side. It’s not easy, emotions are here, especially when Azerbaijani people visit liberated territories and see total destruction you can imagine what kind of emotions they have. But the role of politicians is to defend their agenda and to explain that only through interaction we can provide sustainable development and peace and security in the region.
Probably I will stop now, because during the several Baku Global Fora, you know that all the fora and all the events, I was talking about Nagorno-Karabakh. So you know exactly what happened, how it happened, the results I think there is no need to repeat. Better to have more time for our dialogue. So, thank you very much and I am ready to answer any question you have.
