Baku hosted 5th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in the first week of May in which 500 foreign representatives participated from 100 countries to exchange their views and ideas on the theme “Building dialogue into action against discrimination, inequality, and violent conflict”.
World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue has been transformed a global platform initiated by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to address the most important issues that today’s world is facing through dialogues and discussions.
It’s highly appreciated that Azerbaijan has been organizing such kinds of events to promote peace and harmony in the world conflict zones. The leadership of the country highly concerned about the increasing conflicts in the world as Azerbaijan witnessed the miseries of war while bearing one million refugees that fled from the Nagorno-Karabakh, the 20 percent land of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia in the violation of the United Nations (UN) resolutions.
While addressing in his opening remarks Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev urged the world to get united to form peace, interfaith harmony, and cultural dialogue to make this world the best place for living. Ilham Aliyev in his speech said: “We are proud of our ancient history. One of the oldest mosques in the world is situated in the ancient city of Shamakhi. One of the oldest churches in the Caucasus, the church of Caucasian Albania, is situated in our ancient city of Shaki.”
Aliyev stated: “I remember eight years ago when we held the first forum probably we did not even imagine that the forum will get such broad international support. Our initiative to organize world forum on intercultural dialogue in 2011, was based on our history, our geography, and our understanding that in order to make the world safer we need to be very active on the issues of promoting dialogue between civilizations, between cultures, between representatives of different religions and ethnic groups.”
Azerbaijan a role model for intercultural dialogue
Azerbaijan is the country where leadership strongly believes in the intercultural dialogue and according to the vision of President Ilham Aliyev, the country is a role model to display and practice the interfaith harmony and love among all religions. All religions in this country have equal freedom and rights of performing theirs believes.
The tolerance and to accept the other religions believes is deeply inherited in the family values and traditions of Azerbaijani nationals. Azerbaijan has been promoting dozens of forums and platforms on which people discuss for strengthening peace in the region. Baku process is one of the best examples of these initiatives that have been carried out from Azerbaijan.
Bridging between East and West
Azerbaijan is a country that has been bridging between east and west rapidly. The geopolitical location of this country makes it more fascinating between East and West. The connectively of this country is marvelous in the South Caucasian region.
Azerbaijan has a huge potential of engaging in constructive dialogues between East and West for the solution of various conflicts and disputes. This country has strong cultural and traditional values based on the principle of humanity and trust.
Azerbaijan leadership and the people are looking forward to the world to come and visit this country while exploring love, affection, and tolerance from this ‘Land of Fire’.
