Azernews.Az

By Trend

The 5th News Agencies World Congress, the 16th General Assembly of the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA) and the 22nd session of the Council of CIS Heads of News Agencies have kicked off in the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev noted that almost two hundred guests from 80 countries representing more than hundred of the world's leading news agencies from five continents, have gathered in Baku, for the 5th World News Agencies Congress.

"This is a big honor for us to host this important global international event, and I am sure that our guests will not only discuss the important issues on the agenda, but also know more about Azerbaijan, see the development of the country," said the president.

He added that the country is modern, dynamic and which has great potential for the future.

"We consider hosting this event in Azerbaijan also a sign of appreciation of the activity and achievements of Azerbaijan in the development of independent media," the president said. "This is one of the priorities for our government."

"I think that the achievements during the 25 years of independence show that we managed to provide freedom of media, as well as all other fundamental freedoms," said the president.

"Today, in Azerbaijan there are almost fourty daily, more than two hundred weekly and monthly newspapers, ten nationwide, one satellite, thirteen regional, seventeen cable TV," he said.

President Aliyev added that Azerbaijan is a country with completely free Internet, and more than 75 percent of population are internet users. He added that the population of the country is close to ten million, and there are two million social media users in Azerbaijan.

"So these figures show that development of free media in Azerbaijan was very successful, we achieved our goal and one of the areas of transformation for our country during these 25 years, along with political and economic reforms, was the area of reforms in democratic development," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Last month we celebrated the 25th anniversary of restoration of our independence. Restoration, because the first democratic republic of Azerbaijan was established almost a hundred years ago in 1918. Unfortunately, first Democratic Republic lasted for only two years, but these two years were important. They laid down the foundation for democratic development of our nation," said the president.

He went on to add that Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was the first democratic republic in the Muslim world.

"One of the achievements of the republic was that women were granted with the right to vote - much earlier than in many European countries," he said.

President Aliyev further went on saying that Azerbaijan's independence was restored in 1991, and the country had to live its own life, to establish political institutions, modernize its economy.

Noting that Azerbaijan had to find its own place on the world map, the president went on to add that these years have shown Azerbaijan achieving its main targets.

"Azerbaijan today is a country with a good reputation on international arena. Only one fact is worth to mention to demonstrate that several years ago Azerbaijan was elected as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the highest international body. And we got that seat with the support of 155 countries. So the majority of international community, even countries which do not have very active political contacts with Azerbaijan, supported our candidacy," said the president.

"That was a sign of support, sign of appreciation of our activity, our international behavior, as a responsible, reliable, reasonable partner," Ilham Aliyev said. "Also, this broad support was generated by the fact that Azerbaijan is a country with independent foreign policy, which is aimed at cooperation, broadening regional cooperation, international cooperation."

"Our foreign policy is based on our national interests and is not aimed against anyone. But at the same time, Azerbaijan is a country with dignity and our future is in our hands," said Ilham Aliyev. "Therefore, these factors, along with, of course, rapid economic and political development of Azerbaijan played the most important role."

The president said that Azerbaijan works in different international organizations and in all these organizations we promote the values of justice and international law.

"Azerbaijan is one of the few countries of the world which is at the same time member of the Islamic Cooperation Organization and Council of Europe. And in both organizations Azerbaijan enjoys very high level of support. It was our initiative for the first time in the world, back in 2008, to organize a meeting between ministers of culture of Islamic Cooperation Organization and the Council of Europe in Baku," Ilham Aliyev said.

Noting that this was the first historic meeting, President Aliyev added that afterwards, the development of cooperation continued between these two organizations, and the broader movement, the "Baku process" was created.

"We are proud of that. We think that our achievement in that area is highly appreciated in the world," said the president.

The head of state said that Azerbaijan's history, traditions, multicultural development of our nation is a good example of how relations between different countries, civilizations, different religions, can be properly planned and organized.

"Azerbaijan is a good example of multiculturalism," said the president. "By the way, this year in Azerbaijan is declared the Year of Multiculturalism. It is our state policy. At the same time, it is also the general mood in our society. We organize numerous international events, among them - the annual Baku Humanitarian Forum, Intercultural Dialogue forum. This year we hosted the 7th Global Forum of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations," said Ilham Aliyev.

The president went on to add that an important sign of Azerbaijan's achievements in this area was the September visit of the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, to Azerbaijan.

"He visited the catholic church, Azerbaijani mosques, he met with representatives of all the leaders of religious communities of Azerbaijan," said the president. "He delivered a message from Baku, from this hall, to the world, about the values of intercultural, interreligious dialogue."

"We consider this as one of the achievements, especially in today's world, where unfortunately we see confrontations based on religious and ethnic grounds," said the president. "We see tragedies, we see suffering of people, just because of their nationality or religious roots. And these are very concerning developments."

President Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan proposes its own agenda - the agenda of multiculturalism, which has not failed and the example of Azerbaijan proves that.

"We propose agenda of cooperation, mutual understanding. These are positive trends, so our role in this respect is of course mainly based on our traditions and needs for our country, because Azerbaijan is multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country, and we have peace, and all the representatives of different ethnic groups and religions live in peace and dignity in Azerbaijan," he said.

"At the same time, this is the message to the world. Because we are not an isolated island, we live in the neighborhood, therefore, we are interested. It is our legitimate interest to see positive development in the area, both in the region and in the world," he said.

President Aliyev also touched upon Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying that among the problems which Azerbaijan has been facing for many years since independence, is the occupation of Azerbaijan's legal and historical lands by Armenia.

He informed the audience that Nagorno Karabakh is a historic part of Azerbaijan, the name Karabakh is of Azerbaijani origin.

The president said that not only Nagorno Karabakh, which used to be the autonomous district of Azerbaijan during the Soviet times, but also seven other districts of Azerbaijan, are under Armenian occupation.

"This occupation has lasted for more than 20 years, and as a result of this, more than a million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and internally displaced persons. Our people were subjected to ethnic cleansing by Armenia and today almost 20 percent of internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan is under the Armenian occupation," Ilham Aliyev said.

He went on to add that international organizations, all the leading organizations, adopted the right decisions and resolutions, including the UN Security Council, which adopted four resolutions, demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Armenian troops from Azerbaijan's territory in the beginning of the 90s, but they are not implemented.

"Armenia just ignores these resolutions and shows its ignorance to the whole international community," the president said. "There should be very serious discussions and steps with respect to the elaboration, the mechanism of implementation of resolutions of the UN Security Council resolutions."

Ilham Aliyev said that at the same time, from political point of view, there should be unified methods of implementation of resolutions.

"In some cases, we see the UN resolutions implemented within days, in our case it has been more than 20 years. This is unacceptable, this is a sign of double standards towards Azerbaijan, and we need to put an end to the occupation," said the president.

He said that other international organizations, such as the Islamic Cooperation Organization, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the European Parliament, the Non-Aligned Movement and others, have adopted similar decisions and resolutions, which remain on paper.

"All our historic monuments, our mosques, graves, were destroyed by Armenians. The OSCE twice sent the fact-finding missions to the occupied territories and the reports of the OSCE show that," said the president.

Meanwhile, the president said that in Baku, one can visit the Armenian church, which is under the state protection, and which has been renovated.

"But in occupied territories of Nagorno Karabakh and other districts, all our mosques are destroyed by Armenia," said Ilham Aliyev.

The president said that the conflict must be resolved as soon as possible, and the resolution must be based on international law and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

"Territorial integrity of Azerbaijan has the same value as that of any other country. And we hear all the time that similar conflicts in the post-Soviet area must be resolved based on territorial integrity of countries. The same should be applied to Azerbaijan," Ilham Aliyev said.

The president said that despite this huge political and economic burden, Azerbaijan develops.

"We are very committed to our development. We need to build a stronger country, we need to implement all our social promises and diversify economy and be stronger," he said. "Unfortunately, in today's world, the international law many times is violated and there are no mechanisms, political mechanisms to force the aggressor to stop the aggression."

The president went on to say that Azerbaijan concentrated largely on the country's economic development, and the achievements, according to him, are very impressive.

Today Azerbaijan is a modern, developing, self-sufficient country with strong diversified economy, with a very high level of social protection, said Ilham Aliyev.

"All our economic programs were implemented, some of them even before schedule. Azerbaijan's economy grew more than 3 times in the last 13 years," said the president. "We managed to cope with poverty, which is now at the level of 5 percent, and unemployment is almost at the same level."

President Aliyev went on to say that international organizations, reliable organizations, have a very high rank for Azerbaijan.

"For instance, the Davos World Economic Forum ranks Azerbaijan at #37, with respect to the competitiveness of economy. It shows that our economy is competitive, diversified, and not based on one source, which is energy," IlhamAliyev said.

"Therefore, further diversification of economy, the economic reforms, in the future will create even more opportunities for sustainable development of our country,"said the president. "And Azerbaijan, I am sure, in the coming years, will only become stronger and stronger."

He went on to say that Azerbaijan shows efforts to create broad regional cooperation, based on shared mutual interests.

"In particular in the area of energy and transportation, our initiatives already bring good results," he said. "Energy projects initiated by Azerbaijan in mid 90s, already brought a lot of prosperity to our region."

Ilham Aliyev went on to add that Azerbaijan was the first country to connect huge energy resources of the Caspian Sea with international markets, in particular noting the connection between Caspian, Black, Mediterranean seas by diversified pipeline system.

"That was one of the main achievements of Azerbaijan," he said.

"Today we work on the global energy project, which is called the Southern Gas Corridor," he said. "It will allow us to be a reliable exporter of natural gas to many countries. The cost of this project is around $45 billion, and Azerbaijan plays a leading role in implementation of this project."

The president went on to add that Azerbaijan today has established a very close cooperation with seven countries, the members of the project, and more countries are to join in the coming years.

"It will allow us to satisfy our demands to become a big gas exporter. It will allow the transitors and customers to have additional sources of energy, which all the countries need to develop their economy and industry," Ilham Aliyev said.

"Our energy policy is based on our national interests, and on cooperation," he said. "In this area Azerbaijan also demonstrates a very responsible approach, based, as I said before, on shared interests. All the members of the project must have their share of profit and we consider energy cooperation as an area which can unite, not alienate, countries."

"I think achievements in this area are already worth to be examined. The same can be applied to our initiatives to create reliable transportation corridors," said the president.

He said that Azerbaijan has an advantageous geographic location, but without infrastructure this location doesn't mean much.

"Therefore, our efforts were aimed at establishing the regional cooperation on the areas of transportation. Particularly, the East-West corridor, which is almost completed," said the president, adding that some tests have already been carried, with cargo trains crossing Azerbaijan from Asia to Europe.

Ilham Aliyev also named the North-South corridor, which is under implementation, adding that Azerbaijan took very important measures and steps in implementing this corridor.

"If you look at the map, you can see that both of these corridors will generate a lot of additional activity. It will stimulate growth, stimulate industrial development, allow companies and countries to export their goods and save time. North-South and East-West corridors for companies that send their cargoes, will save at least 2 weeks time," the president said.

He went on to add that such projects need investments.

"And we invest, also provide financial assistance to other partners in order to implement this project. This is aimed at regional cooperation, predictability, and also of course, at economic benefits and security. Because without security in the region, none of the projects I've mentioned can be implemented," the president said.

He went on to say that the security concerns are growing, as "situation around us becomes more and more tense". President Aliyev added that new sources of concern, such as threats, bloodshed, confrontation, wars, emerge, and this is of big concern.

Azerbaijan's policy has always been aimed at reduction of risks and I think what we have today in Azerbaijan, demonstrates that this was the right policy, not only for us but for the region, said President Aliyev.

"Of course, talking about 25 years of independence, we need to mention the efforts in our social protection area, creation of social infrastructure," said the president. "One of the main areas of social projects was the resettlement of refugees and internally displaced persons, as 250 thousand were provided with new appartments, flats."

"Also, we largely invested in education infrastructure, more than 3000 schools were built in Azerbaijan," said Ilham Aliyev. "We can be proud that Azerbaijan is a country with 100% literacy."

He went on to add that this will allow Azerbaijan to develop, because modern development in the world is not based on natural resources, but on knowledge, technology,education.

"We are trying, and I think that we managed to transform natural resources and wealth into human capital," said the president. "Education was, is, and will always be one of our top priorities."

"Talking about Azerbaijan, I'd like to mention international events which we have organized and which also aim at partnership and friendship," Ilham Aliyev said.

Saying that Azerbaijan is a host country to maky international events, the president named two sports events, which, according to him, go beyond sports.

"First was the Inaugural European Games, organized last year in Baku. It was symbolic from two points of view, first - the European Games were never held before, unlike other continental games, and second - the European Games were held in a Muslim country. This was a very important sign of mutual understanding and I am grateful to our european partners for selecting Azerbaijan as a host country for the first European Games, which were held at the level of Summer Olympic Games. It was a real festival of unity and friendship," he said.

Ilham Aliyev then said that next year Azerbaijan will be hosting the Islamic Solidarity Games.

"In one city, in two years, the European Games and the Islamic Games will be organized," he said.

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