Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

The first youth forum in Azerbaijan is a very important event and a big honour for the country, President Ilham Aliyev said while addressing the First Global Forum on Youth Policies ongoing in Baku on October 29.

The three-day forum is co-organized with the assistance of Azerbaijan's Youth and Sports Ministry, UN Development Program, Office of the United Nations Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The event has brought together ministers, experts and young leaders from many countries.

Of course, there will be many more forums in the future, but this forum will remain in history, the president stressed.

"We are grateful to the organizers that Azerbaijan was selected as a host country. We consider it as recognition of the efforts of our government in sports policy, youth policy, and policy related to active development of the country," President Aliyev added.

He went on saying that one of the important priorities for Azerbaijan is education, and the country is proud that almost 100-percent literacy is provided in Azerbaijan.

The president noted that Azerbaijan has a very solid legislation base in the area of youth policy.

President Aliyev said there is a law on youth policy and two state programs, called the "Azerbaijani Youth", adding that they have been adopted and successfully implemented.

"Relatively recently we created a youth fund, and the funds channeled from the state budget to that fund help young people to present themselves to the society," he said. "They work on different projects related to culture, education, social activity, and political reforms."

He noted the fund helps the younger generation to explore their talents and to present them to the society and therefore, contribute to the development of Azerbaijan.

"I mentioned education and literacy, and I would also like to say that education in general is one of the government's priorities, because we are absolutely sure that only educated people, people with knowledge in different fields can help the country, and help themselves to develop," he said.

"And if you look at the performance and achievements of the developed countries in the world, you will see that education, science, technological innovations are the main tools of successful development...not energy resources, not minerals, not oil and gas, but education, knowledge and technology," the president stressed.

"This is a driving force for the whole mankind," he added.

The president expressed hope that with close interaction with international educational centers, Azerbaijan can achieve even more.

He said the Azerbaijani government has been for many years funding educational programs for the younger generation in the leading universities in the world.

President Aliyev added that about 40 million euros have been spent this year to train the young people abroad.

"We also want to have more international communication between our universities with the leading universities in the world," the president said. "And we see the benefits of this policy, because today the younger generation of Azerbaijan is actively participating in creation of new, modern, and independent country."

The president also spoke about the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in his address.

The resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be based on decisions and resolutions of international organizations, particularly the UN Security Council resolutions must be implemented, he said.

The president pointed to the fact that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe adopted similar decisions.

"The European Parliament, the Council of Europe, the Islamic Cooperation Organization, and others - they all fully support the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan," Aliyev said.

"And we see that in some cases the resolutions are implemented within days, in our case, for more than 20 years they still remain on paper," he added.

President Aliyev went on to say, that it is necessary to be stronger, more efficient, and work harder to have resolution of the conflict based on international law norms and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani president also expressed confidence that the day will come when the Azerbaijani citizens will return to their native lands in Nagorno-Karabakh and other occupied territories.

"We have strong support of the international community not only on this issue, but also in general," President Aliyev said. "Best indicator of that was the election of Azerbaijan as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, and we were members of the council for 2 years, 2012-2013."

"We were selected with the absolute majority from the international community, 155 countries voted for Azerbaijan," he added.

The president said this was particularly important, because with only over 20 years of independence, Azerbaijan became a member of the international community, and managed to get such a strong support from 155 countries.

The Forum has brought together ministers, experts and young leaders from many countries. Representatives from 160 countries are participating at the forum.

Youth and Sports Minister Azad Rahimov has held a range of meetings on the sidelines of the First Global Forum on Youth Policies in Baku.

He met with UN Goodwill Ambassador Marta Vieira da Silva and Director General for Democracy at the Council of Europe Snezana Samardzic-Markovic to discuss joint projects and exchange views on the projects to be implemented in the field of youth policy.

Rahimov also met with U.S. Department of State Special Advisor for Youth Engagement Andrew Rabens, and mulled cooperation prospects with Vanja Udovicic, Serbian Minister of Youth and Sports.