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The 3rd Baku Global Shared Societies Forum started in Baku on April 28.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, making an opening speech at the event, welcomed the quests and participants.
“I am very glad that today in Baku we’ve organized such an important, remarkable international event,” he said.
President Aliyev said the event provides great opportunity for former presidents, prime ministers, politicians, statesmen to address important issues.
“It is a unique opportunity to have such a high-class representatives to discuss what we’re facing in the coming years, the ways, the challenges and how to reduce the tensions that we see all over the world,” he said.
The president said Azerbaijan, for centuries, was a place where civilizations met, a natural geographic bridge between Europe and Asia.
“And now it is a cultural, am sure, and political bridge between Europe and the Muslim World,” the president said.
Ilham Aliyev stressed that the traditions of multiculturalism have very deep roots in Azerbaijani society.
“Regardless the form of political structure in Azerbaijan, all the representatives of different nationalities, ethnic groups, religions, have always lived in peace and dignity in our country,” he said. “That is why now when Azerbaijan is independent, it became one of the world centers of multiculturalism.”
The president reminded that in May Azerbaijan will be hosting the 3rd International Intercultural Dialogue Forum, and that the country every year organizes International Humanitarian Forum, which primarily addresses the issues of peaceful co-existence, building trust and reducing tensions between different representatives of the world.
“Despite history and culture, Azerbaijan as an independent country, has existed for more than 20 years, and those years were remarkable years of transformation,” said the president.
“What we achieved today clearly shows that only during the period of independence our people can achieve great success, can themselves determine their future, can themselves plan what to do and position themselves in the world,” he said.
The president said that Azerbaijan has always been the country, blessed with energy resources, but at the same time, when the country wasn’t independent, it couldn’t enjoy the benefits of these resources.
He noted that at the beginning of the 20th century, Azerbaijan produced more than half of world’s oil.
“During the Soviet times, in particular, during the times of the WWII, Azerbaijan’s oil played one of the most important roles in fight against fascism. More than 70 percent of oil in Soviet Union, came from Azerbaijan,” said the president. “But when we became independent, we saw ecological catastrophe, we saw devastation of oil industry, economic and industrial stagnation.”
“That was a challenging period, because not only we had to build state, but also to completely transform political and economic system,” the president said. “From planned economy to market economy, from one party system to multi-party system, from totalitarian system to democracy. I think that implementation of political and economic reforms, in parallel, provided rapid transformation, stability, economic and social development.”
Ilham Aliyev said that today Azerbaijani society is free and all the freedoms in the country are provided.
“Political transformation continues, still more work needed on the improvement of the legal system, because justice in the society, justice in family and everywhere else is one of the most important elements of development in any society,” he said.
The president said Azerbaijan plays an important role in bringing closer the countries of different history, traditions and culture.
Trend.az
