Baku, Azerbaijan, June 19
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Azerbaijan’s participation in the international conference entitled “From interfaith and intercivilizational cooperation to universal solidarity” in Vienna will enhance the country's role in strengthening interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue in the region and in the world, Head of the Expert Council of the Baku Network, Deputy Director General of Trend News Agency Ph.D. Elkhan Alasgarov, who attending the conference, told Trend.
“The importance of the Vienna conference for Azerbaijan is that Baku actually voiced and introduced into the international agenda its own model for the development of interfaith and intercivilizational dialogue and multiculturalism,” he said.
"Azerbaijan’s multicultural development principle is supported in Europe,” Alasgarov said. “The Vienna conference is the proof. Azerbaijan’s participation in this event is also important from the point of view of the future development of the Azerbaijan-Europe cooperation."
Then he stressed the importance of the Azerbaijani president’s message to the participants of the conference.
"Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan on political issues Ali Hasanov read out Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s message to the participants of the conference, which, in my opinion, is of great importance for the foreign policy,” Alasgarov added.
“At the same time, Azerbaijan’s participation in such important international venues strengthens the country's image, but also enhances Azerbaijan’s position in terms of the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,” he said.
“Azerbaijan is step by step building up its diplomatic power and in fact does not leave any opportunity for Armenia’s insinuations regarding Karabakh,” Alasgarov said.
“Despite the different agenda of the event in Vienna, the Karabakh issue is relevant,” Alasgarov said. “It is indirectly available at this conference and all the diplomatic Armenian aspirations carried out in Europe fail because Azerbaijan sets an example of equal cooperation and offers Europe its concept and own vision of further civilization development.”
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
An international conference entitled "From interfaith and intercivilizational cooperation to universal solidarity" kicked off in Vienna, Austria.
The conference was organized by the Baku International Center for Interfaith and Intercivilizational Cooperation under the Caucasian Muslims Office, together with the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), the Geneva Center for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue and the Azerbaijani embassy in Austria.
About 300 state, public, academic and religious figures from over 30 countries, including the heads of five international and 16 non-governmental organizations, as well as deputy secretaries-general of the United Nations, representatives of the Austrian Federal Government and parliament, members of international organizations, religious confessions, embassy staff accredited in this country are participating in the event.