Dalai Lama praises Nizami Ganjavi International Centre
By Nigar Orujova
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has shared his views on First Club de Madrid South Caucasus Forum on Inclusion to be organized in Azerbaijan by the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre and Club de Madrid on May 6-8.
During the forum some 30 heads of state and governments, 12 members of the Club de Madrid, 12 members of Nizami Ganjavi International Center, and over 200 high-level experts, stakeholders, scholars and civil society representatives will address democracy-related issues like inclusion, shared societies and women's economic, social and political empowerment in Azerbaijan.
In his letter to the center, the 14th Dalai Lama said the center's research on Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi's careful attention to human rights and propaganda for human rights in his works are very impressive and exemplary, the State Committee for Work with the Diaspora said on Wednesday.
"So, shameful women trafficking and human rights violations have become a major problem for the 21st century," the letter said. "Nizami Ganjavi freed the woman who had been sent to him as a slave. This action is very important for the society."
The Dalai Lama said that the example of such thinkers as Nizami Ganjavi who embrace human values plays a crucial role in the development of effective international activity to resolve these global issues.
The Dalai Lama appreciated the attention paid by the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre to the problems facing mankind.
The first South Caucasus Forum on Inclusion will bring together national, regional and international authorities. Participants will gather to provide support to the authorities of Azerbaijan in facing the challenges of democratic development, particularly inclusion of minorities and internally displaced persons.
The Club de Madrid -- the largest forum of democratically elected former Presidents and Prime Ministers -- was invited to co-organize this first Club de Madrid South Caucasus Forum in Azerbaijan by the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, a cultural, non-profit, non-political organization dedicated to the memory of Nizami Ganjavi, with support of the Azerbaijani State Committee for Work with Diaspora and Ganja city mayor's office.
The Club de Madrid is an independent non-profit organization composed of over 90 democratic former presidents and prime ministers from more than 60 countries, who have come together to respond to a growing demand for support among leaders in two key areas: democratic leadership and governance; and response to crisis and post-crisis situations.
Nizami Ganjavi International Centre, based in Ganja, Azerbaijan's second largest city, was established in September 2012 in order to increase awareness of the great works of poet Nizami Ganjavi, to help return his masterpieces to his homeland, to serve as a depository for Nizami's works, and to further develop the values embodied in his works through community engagement.
Nizami Ganjavi, the greatest representative of the Eastern Renaissance, was born in the 12th century in Azerbaijan and represented the quintessence of world literature and philosophy in his immortal work Khamsa (Five), via the aesthetic power of his art. Even now, in times when science and technology are developing exponentially, mysticism remains a source of intense fascination, and it is impossible not to be amazed by the clear logic and consciousness in the works of Nizami Ganjavi.