"Azerbaijan ensured peace by war and this should be thoroughly examined" President Aliyev's remarks at VI World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku / VIDEO

The VI World Forum of Intercultural Dialogue on the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity" is taking place at the Baku Congress Center.

President Ilham Aliyev is attending the event, Caliber.Az reports, citing Azertag.

Addressing the forum, President Aliyev remarked: “Representatives from more than 100 countries are participating in the 6th World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue. This truly demonstrates that the Forum is a very important international platform for discussing issues related to intercultural dialogue.”

“Azerbaijan has been a crossroads of cultures for centuries. Our geographical location, positioned between East and West, has paved the way for this tendency,” said the President.

The Azerbaijani leader underscored that Azerbaijani society, known for its multiculturalism and significant ethnic diversity, has upheld key values such as tolerance, mutual respect, friendship, and partnership over the centuries.

“In Azerbaijan, representatives from various ethnic groups and religions live together like a family. They are valued citizens of Azerbaijan and genuine patriots of our state and statehood,” President Aliyev noted.

"We must strengthen these positive tendencies, cultural dialogue, and cultural diversity. All of this is a treasure that has come down through the centuries," the President emphasized.

Furthermore, highlighting the harmonious coexistence of people from different ethnic groups and religions in Azerbaijan, President Aliyev underlined: “All the people who live in Azerbaijan, representatives of different ethnic groups and religions, live as one family, as great citizens of Azerbaijan, as patriots of our state and statehood.”

“They do everything in order to strengthen our country and to strengthen the positive trends of cultural dialogue and cultural diversity. So, having this great experience, which is coming from many ages before, we thought that it would be right for us to undertake this initiative and launch the Baku Process,” the Azerbaijani leader added.

Having reiterated his country's adherence to multilateralism, the President said: “We are strongly committed to multilateralism and have promoted the values of multilateralism during our four-year chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement from 2019 until the beginning of this year.”

“We are strongly committed to the founding principles of the Non-Aligned Movement, which include territorial integrity, sovereignty of the countries, and non-interference in internal affairs of the countries. Based on our initiative, the Parliamentary Network was created for the first time. The Youth and Women platforms were created. I'm sure that the institutional development of the Non-Aligned Movement will continue in the future,” President Aliyev noted.

President Aliyev went on to strongly condemn the practice of neo-colonialism by some European countries, saying: “We speak for international law, and today in the 21st century, we cannot afford to allow some big European countries to continue colonizing other peoples. This is absolutely unacceptable. When we raise our voice nationally, and previously as the chair of NAM, it's not because we are acting against any country. It’s just because we defend justice and international law.”

“The world should not turn a blind eye to this disgusting practice of neo-colonialism, which is leading to forceful assimilation. Forceful assimilation of more than ten French overseas territories is absolutely unacceptable and must be stopped, ” the head of state emphasized.

President Aliyev also addressed Azerbaijan's role as a host country of the COP29 Climate Change Conference and stated: “By unanimous decision, Azerbaijan was elected as a host country, and we see our role in building bridges.

“Our history, geography, and interaction with European institutions and at the same time being geographically located between West and East enable us to do a lot. I think that for successful development of issues related to climate change, we need not only finance—finance will be, by the way, the main topic of COP 29— but also solidarity and mutual trust,” the head of state noted.

Underscoring the country's efforts to ensure peace, the President said: “Azerbaijan ensured peace by war. I think that this should be thoroughly examined.”

“All the major international organizations adopted resolutions and decisions demanding the withdrawal of Armenian forces, including four resolutions by the UN Security Council. Those who adopted those resolutions did not do anything in order to implement them. So, we had to achieve peace through war. What we did in 2020 - 44 days of the Patriotic War - allowed us to liberate the largest part of the territories. Last September, we completely restored our territorial integrity and sovereignty,” the Azerbaijani leader underlined.

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The VI World Forum of Intercultural Dialogue on the theme "Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity" has kicked off at the Baku Congress Center.

President Ilham Aliyev is attending the event, Azertag reports.

10:20

The sixth World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue dedicated to “Dialogue for Peace and Global Security: Cooperation and Interconnectivity” will kick off in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku on May 1.

The forum will be held in partnership with the Azerbaijani Culture Ministry, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ICESCO) and the UN World Tourism Organisation. It will last until May 3, according to Oxu.Az.

The Culture Ministry said that the main goal of the forum is to strengthen the role of the Baku Process as an important international platform for promoting intercultural cooperation and dialogue.

The event, which will last three days, will include 12 panel discussions and four plenary sessions. Among the topics for discussion are education, youth issues, climate change, artificial intelligence, cultural heritage preservation, illegal migration and other spheres.

The representatives of leading international organisations, members of governments, chairmen of parliaments, deputy ministers, representatives of international media outlets, think tanks and non-governmental organisations from more than 100 countries will attend the forum. They will discuss current global challenges and problems. A plenary session “Building trust through interreligious dialogue” is also planned to be held with religious leaders from several countries.

The forum participants will visit the territories liberated from occupation. Two special panel sessions will be held in Aghdam and Shusha.

The foundation of the forum, which is an integral part of the “Baku Process” on intercultural dialogue, initiated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 2008, was laid in 2011.

The World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, first held in Baku in 2011, was subsequently organised in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. The number of countries and organisations participating in the event has increased over the past period. In total, more than 10,000 people, namely, government officials, leaders and representatives of international organisations and institutions, took part in the forums. At the same time, more than 200 various events, plenary and panel discussions, presentations were organised within the forums.

The discussions held as part of the five previous forums, which focused on the challenges facing humanity, and the documents drawn up there, served as the main guide for international organisations.

The “Baku Process” has been recognised as an important global platform for intercultural dialogue over the past period.