SPEECH BY ALIYEV AT THE OPENING CEREMONY OF PERMANENT HEADQUARTERS OF THE ISLAMIC CONFERENCE YOUTH FORUM FOR DIALOGUE AND COOPERATION
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Sept 4 2006
Esteemed Chairman of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey,
Esteemed Ministers!
Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen!
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to my brother,
Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan for inviting me to
the opening ceremony of the Permanent Headquarters of The Islamic
Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation.
It is a great pleasure to be in Turkey again. When I was coming here,
I remembered the similar event that occurred in Turkey a month and a
half ago. One month and half ago in Istanbul, the strait, and later
in Ceyhan, we came together to inaugurate the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan
oil pipeline.
Today, we are marking the opening of the Permanent Headquarters of
the Islamic Conference Youth Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation.
These two events may be not directly linked to one another, but I
think the fact that both ones have occurred in a short period of time
is pretty symbolic.
Operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline will increase our
economic power, and strengthen our positions in the region. It will
bring us even closer to each other, and, as a result, will increase
our states’ economic and political weight. At the same time, the
successful activities of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum will
strengthen our positions in humanitarian sphere. It is not a secret
that powerful economy, huge potential is a major condition and a firm
basis for any business, and we must use this firm basis to convert
material values into human ones. At this point, start of activity
of the Islamic Conference Youth Forum is of great importance, and
I consider this event as the most remarkable of those occurred over
the past years in the Muslim world.
The organization has been very successful at the start. All the
organizational problems have been solved for the short period of
time, and the Youth Forum has started to work very actively. Today,
activity and future plans of the Forum have been widely discussed. It
has great programs and plans. I don’t doubt that all the plans will be
realized. At the same time, I would like to note that joint activity
of the Muslim youth is also of great importance for our future.
Youth occupies greater part of the populations of the member-states of
the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Youth is the most active
and powerful strata of the society. Cooperation between our countries’
youth will help us bring our activity up to a higher level, and will
make an important contribution to strengthening Islamic solidarity.
We have to represent ourselves to the world more comprehensively,
as we really are.
In some cases, false or, I can say, dangerous image of the Islamic
countries and Islam religion is formed in the world. From time to
time, we witness deliberate or casual manifestations of that, but
this is the fact. We have to demonstrate to the world that Islam is a
peaceful religion. Islam can never be associated with terrorism. It is
we who are subjected to terrorism. In Azerbaijan, nearly 30 terrorist
acts killing over two thousand innocent civilians were committed by
Armenian terrorist organizations in the early 1990s.
Azerbaijan has been under Armenian occupation for many years. All our
historical monuments have been destroyed in the occupied territories.
Our mosques, schools and historical buildings have been razed to the
ground. Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is violated. The aggression
against Azerbaijan has led to occupation of 20% of its lands, and over
1 million people living in a refugee or internally displaced status.
All this is reality. We have always been the side subjected to
terrorism. We want justice to be restored. We want to have our
territorial integrity restored, and we will do achieve it as the
norms of international law, justice is on our side. We must be more
active, and use all possible means including political, economic and
democratic, and all others to obtain justice. And the role of youth
in this cause is really great.
It is with great satisfaction that I want to mention the Youth
Forum-initiated publication of the book about the Karabakh conflict,
for the first time, translated into the Arabic language. It shows
that the work of the Forum already gives practical results, and this
fact is worthy of praise. Actually, making youth better organized
and educated is the matter of paramount importance to the Muslim world.
Our young people should be actively involved in all progressive
processes taking place in the world. They should be well educated, and
have the access to advanced technologies. In Azerbaijan, we pay great
attention to this problem. All of the middle schools in Azerbaijan are
being equipped with computers having the access to the Internet for
our children and youth can watch and participate in the processes
taking place in the world. We have to play an important role in
forming a strong generation of youth, and we have to do a lot for that.
Encouraging education, sports, healthy life style on one hand, and
active involvement of the youth in socio-political life on the other
hand, are what will strengthen our countries, and solidarity of the
member-states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.
The time will come when today’s young people will hold leading posts in
our countries, will run our countries. The very fate of our countries
will depend on their activities. It is very important that our young
generation be not only highly skilled, well-educated and modern-minded
but also remain devoted to our national and religious values, and
be grown up in the spirit of patriotism to ensure development of our
countries in the years to come.
I welcome the founding of the Forum, consider it as a very important
thing, and I am convinced that its activity will bring us closer,
and, as a whole, will consolidate the Organization of the Islamic
Conference.
Azerbaijan is a very active member of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference. Just recently, we have brought together the member-states’
foreign ministers in Baku. Within the few next days, tourism ministers
of the member-states will gather in Baku. In a word, I think our
activities in this direction are very important, and we are trying
to bring our countries much closer to each other.
Our political relations are on a very high level, but it is important
that our countries cooperate closer in economic sphere as well.
Dear friends, I am sure that great work will be done by the Youth
Forum, and there will be great results. Today, we have given our
blessing to the Forum, and demonstrated our support to it. Besides,
I would like this support to be reflected in the process of the Forum
organizing. To this end, the government of Azerbaijan has decided on
transferring $100 million to the Forum’s budget. I am sure this small
contribution will create a good basis for your activities to be more
successful. In the future, of course, all of our countries will provide
support to strengthen material and technical basis of the Forum.
I once again congratulate all of you on this wonderful event. I
express my love to the brotherly people of Turkey.
Thank you.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress