Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

2016 has been remembered by many bright and significant events for Azerbaijan. The year was saturated by important economic, political, social, cultural and sporting occasions.

Trilateral Summit of Azerbaijani, Russian and Iranian presidents

A Trilateral Summit with the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Russian President Vladimir Putin was held on August 8 in Baku. The heads of state discussed the expansion of Azerbaijan-Iran-Russia cooperation in political, economic, energy and transportation fields.

The presidents signed the Joint Declaration of the Summit. The meeting in trilateral format was described as a historical event as it was the first trilateral meeting of the presidents of these three countries in history.

Nationwide Constitutional Referendum

As a result of nationwide voting on September 26, important changes were made to the Constitution of the country.

In a bill recently sent to the Constitutional Court, President Ilham Aliyev proposed amendments to 29 Articles of Azerbaijan’s current constitution. The changes envisage extension of the presidential term from five to seven years, establishment of the first vice-president and vice-president positions in the country as well as abolishment of minimum age limit for presidential candidates, dissolution of parliament by the president.

Foundation stone laid for Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP)

A ceremony of laying the foundation stone of TAP project was held on May 17 in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Addressing the event, Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and managing director at TAP Ian Bradshaw hailed the importance of the project in ensuring Europe's energy security.

The realization of TAP project will allow the access of new gas to European markets.

Azerbaijani gas produced under Shah Deniz-2 project will be pumped to Europe via TAP pipeline which is part of the Southern Gas Corridor project. In the first stage, 10 billion cubic meters of gas will be delivered to Europe through the pipeline that will be linked to TANAP.

Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations

The UN Forum considered as one of the largest forums in the world were attended by heads of state and foreign ministers to make important decisions in Baku on April 25-27.

Holding this issue of the Global Forum of UN Alliance of Civilizations, which was established to eliminate the tension between the West and the Islamic world, in Azerbaijan -- an ancient land located between East and West – was, of course, symbolic.

Baku Declaration was adopted during a ministerial meeting of the Forum.

5th News Agencies World Congress and 16th OANA General Assembly

The event, which was held on November 16-18, brought together 200 heads and representatives of 130 news agencies from 80 countries, as well as international media experts, official representative of UN, UNESCO, and executives of regional media organizations.

The Congress featured several sessions, including "The future of news consumption", "News agencies – challenges and opportunities of new technologies and social media", "News agency innovation", "Training journalists for a multi-media future", "Protecting the journalists' mission: freedom, access, safety and conflict zones". It also featured discussion on problems facing journalism, and forms of cooperation between news agencies and different social media platforms.

FIG Challenge Cup 2016

The biggest sporting event opened the international World Calendar of artistic gymnastics in the Olympic year in Baku on February 19-21. A total of world's 146 best gymnasts within the delegations representing 19 countries showed brilliant performances for three days of top-class competition.

The FIG World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics was a great success and a grandiose event that left behind not only some great memories of sporting achievement, but also wonderful legacy of support for young gymnasts.

The World Challenge Cup with excellent level of organization and impressive atmosphere became a real milestone in the gymnastics world.

Baku, which can truly claim for the title of sports capital of the continent, also hosted another exciting gymnastics festival following artistic gymnastics -- the FIG World Cup in Trampoline Gymnastics which was another considerable and exciting gymnastics festival, welcoming 77 gymnasts from 17 countries.

Grand Prix Formula 1

The eighth round of the European Grand Prix was successfully held on the cost of the Caspian Sea -- Baku, where Azerbaijan’s capital demonstrated how to stage a new Grand Prix, treating race fans and the F1 fraternity to the warmest of welcomes and to a truly remarkable circuit.

The length of the race track, where 11 teams each with 2 pilots, competed for the best title, was 6 km and had some pretty serious changes in altitude, ascents and descents.

For Azerbaijan Formula 1 with its half a billion audience -- the show inferior in popularity only to the Olympic Games and the Football World Cup -- had a special significance. It was an opportunity to present to the world a modern, open and secular Azerbaijan.

World Chess Olympiad

Baku became a large arena of chess on September 1-14. The World Chess Olympiad in Baku became a record one by the number of participants involving 181 male and 142 female teams from 176 countries. The Olympiad has been consigned to history with the excellent level of organization.

Sheki: Cultural Capital of the Turkic World

In 2016, one of the ancient cities of Azerbaijan -- Sheki was declared the capital of the Turkic world.

Sheki located 380 km of the west of Baku is set in a picturesque mountain area rich in narrow gorges and green valleys, springs, purest rivers, water falls and mineral water springs framed by dense woods and alpine meadows.

For centuries this ancient city has long been a famous silk center and an important stop on the Great Silk Route. This year the city held a wide range of cultural events, promoting its rich historical and cultural heritage of the people, and expanding the tourism potential of the region.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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