Today, Azerbaijan can rightly be proud of providing its congress halls as venues for a series of representative congresses of world experts, politicians, scientists, etc. Among them are the “Baku International Humanitarian Forum,” “Global Baku Forum,” “World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue,” “World Summit of Religious Leaders,” “Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations,” and others.
Throughout these forums, thousands of celebrities have visited our country, and hundreds of reports have been heard. The majority of them were opened with a welcoming speech by the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who informed the guests about the latest achievements of the state he leads and introduced them to plans for the future.
One such high-level event is the VI World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue on the theme “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security,” which started today in the capital of Azerbaijan. After the COVID-19 pandemic that shook the planet, it has once again gathered experts from 110 countries around the world. As per tradition, it was opened by the head of state with a welcoming speech, immediately highlighting the importance of the themes included in the forum’s program. Among them are intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, climate challenges, the environment, migration processes, peace and security, the role of civil society in state life, tourism, artificial intelligence, and others.
Indeed, these topics are currently on the pages of the most-read newspapers and on the screens of leading TV channels. They are discussed at the highest levels—at UN General Assembly meetings, sessions of the Non-Aligned Movement, various parliamentary assemblies, etc. Many conferences held around the world dedicate their plenary sessions and panel discussions to these issues.
It should also be noted that since the previous, that is, the fifth World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue held in 2019, the world has not become safer. In addition to devastating wars, human lives have been literally “mowed down” by diseases, pandemics of viruses previously unknown to world science. And these too represent challenges that we all had to face. They have expanded the list of traditional challenges.
In this regard, it is worth noting that Azerbaijan has accumulated specific and quite significant experience in developing original approaches to solving these challenges. The formula for success is the early identification of the problem and the rapid adoption of measures before the situation becomes unmanageable.
The secret of Azerbaijan’s greatest achievements in ensuring the harmonious coexistence of numerous religious and ethnic groups consists of a complex of factors. Among them, first, fortunate geography, which in a good sense of the word “doomed” our country to act as a kind of bridge between the West and the East, between the North and the South, and on this patch, completely different civilizations met and found a common language and a formula for peaceful coexistence, each adding its own color to the palette of cultural diversity; and second, of course, the centuries-old traditions of multiculturalism inherent in the Azerbaijani people. Azerbaijan today, as in the past, is a center of civilized intercivilizational dialogue! And this is not a tautology—our country is an example of the coexistence of civilized civilizations. It is a hearth of tolerance and forbearance. Every citizen, regardless of ethnic background and religion, is a full member of society, and we are all one family. Here, everyone feels not “like at home,” but “at home.”
However, it should be noted that some unfriendly forces from outside have made efforts to disrupt internal harmony, to pit peoples against each other, but they have not succeeded. In the liberation war of 2020-23, all the peoples of Azerbaijan together, like a single iron fist, cleared our land of occupiers and achieved a common Victory!
Now our state has entered a post-conflict period, which has its own characteristics and challenges. We are perhaps one of the rare countries that brought peace by war. This happened because the nearly 30-year-long peace negotiations did not yield results. War was not our choice; we wanted the occupation to end without war. But the intransigence of the other side left us no other choice.
The post-conflict agenda contains a very broad spectrum of tasks, including demining, and the rebuilding of cities and villages wiped off the face of the earth. After all, such a degree of destruction is unknown to most countries in the world! Just think, out of 67 mosques, 65 were destroyed! How much must one hate another religion to commit such an act!
Among the issues related to the post-conflict agenda is also demarcation. It should be emphasized that it is proceeding without intermediaries, on a bilateral basis, and here certain progress has been recorded. And it is precisely Azerbaijan’s decisive actions to stop third-country intervention in the bilateral Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiations, first, that ensured this progress, and second, caused additional irritation to those who wanted to interfere but found themselves in front of a closed door.
This explains the defamation campaign that continues these days against our state. Moreover, the particular irony of this situation is that among the critics, those who continue to hold distant peoples under colonial oppression are especially vociferous! What cynicism must be in the soul of these politicians, who, oppressing distant peoples and pursuing a course of their forcible assimilation, try to squeeze into the bilateral post-conflict negotiation format between Baku and Yerevan.
At the same time, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, various “pocket” international organizations, such as “Freedom House,” “Human Rights Watch,” and others, seem not to notice such ugly relics of the past as colonialism.
Our state, having raised the issue of “vaccine nationalism” during its year of chairing the Non-Aligned Movement (after all, there are 140 countries in it, and it is the second largest organization after the UN), instead of gratitude, faces attacks precisely from those who, using their wealth, bought an excessive amount of vaccines, thereby dooming millions of people in developing and poor countries to death!
This is one of the manifestations of the double standards against which our country has always spoken out and will continue to speak out.
Regardless of what foreign enviers say, our country is confidently following its chosen course. And the fact that today in our capital, after a 5-year break, renowned scientists, politicians, experts have gathered again is a bright testimony to the authority of the Azerbaijani state.
And ahead is still COP29…
Zuhrab Dadashov
