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President Ilham Aliyev: There has never been any confrontation on religious or national grounds in Azerbaijan

02 October 2014 09:16 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Ramiz Mikayiloglu – APA. “Some events happening all over the world make it necessary to hold such forums”, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in his speech at the 4th Baku International Humanitarian Forum. He said the Baku International Forum has turned out a very important format.

The president stated that there has never been any confrontation on religious or national grounds in Azerbaijan.

“Multicultural societies have coexisted in Azerbaijan for centuries. Friendship and solidarity among nations can be an example of it. A number of initiatives of Azerbaijan have already been implemented in the world. For instance, the member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) were also invited to the cultural event of the member countries of the Council of Europe (CoE) in Baku in 2008. In 2009, ministers of CoE countries were invited to the assembly of OIC ministers of culture. On Azerbaijan’s initiative, the summit of the world’s spiritual leaders was held,” he said.

The head of state recalled that agressive policy is pursed againt Azerbaijan, its internationally recognized territories were occupied by Armenia, ethnic cleansing was been carried out. Khojaly genocide committed against us claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent people. He mentioned that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions demanding the withdrawal of the occupying forces from the territories.

“These resolutions still remain unfulfilled and we face double standards. Our fellow countrymen should return to their lands although there is no life and everything has been destroyed in those lands. The two reports of the OSCE fact-finding missions also reflect the destruction of mosques, historical monuments and cemeteries in the occupied territories. This is a humanitarian disaster. Azerbaijan has done a lot to resettle refugees and internally displaced persons and solve their problems. However, some of them are still living in dire conditions", President Aliyev said.

The head of state said despite all of these, Azerbaijan is developing continuously.

“Racism and discrimination are increasing in the world. We are concerned about these tendencies. We will hold discussions for the prevention of such tendencies. Some people say that multiculturalism has failed. However, there is no alternative to multiculturalism in the world. No head of state and government can ignore the public opinion. Thus we should talk about these issues and drop remarks if necessary. We are trying to develop regional cooperation in our region, improve relations and inter-religious dialogue among the countries and nations,” he said.

President Ilham Aliyev also added: “Azerbaijan is very concerned over ongoing processes in the Muslim world. These bloody clashes are destroying the countries. We can’t regard it as an isolated process. All of us should be concerned about the deterioration of attitudes toward migrants in Europe, increase of support to the forces in favor of discrimination. Azerbaijan has a unique role in the modern world and our country is located on the ancient Silk Road between Europe and Asia. We understand both Europe and Asia very well.”