Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

The first South Caucasus Forum held in Azerbaijan this week concluded with the signing of a memorandum between Club de Madrid and the Nizami Ganjavi International Center (NGIC) aiming to join efforts and work together to strengthen Club de Madrid's mission of "democracy that delivers".

The forum, which was co-organized by NGIC and Club de Madrid and supported by Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Diaspora, took place in the capital Baku on May 6-8 and discussed dialogue of civilizations, intercultural dialogue and tolerance issues. The Azerbaijani and Georgian Presidents, Club de Madrid members, NGIC members, and over 200 high-level experts, stakeholders, scholars and civil society representatives from 40 countries were in attendance.

The Memorandum of Understanding was undersigned by the State Committee Chairman, Nazim Ibrahimov, and Club de Madrid President Wim Kok.

The memo will allow the two organizations to join forces in the implementation of Club de Madrid's programs and core mission over the next two years, according to the website of the organization, which aims to promote democracy and change in the international community.

Among the projects and activities to be implemented by Club de Madrid and supported by the NGIC will be a regional women's empowerment program for Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

This collaborative agreement will seek to address and tackle the multitude of challenges that hinder the full realization of women's capacities in this part of the world.

Ibrahimov said the Azerbaijani government will provide support for events like the South Caucasus Forum, which has successfully ended in Baku.

According to him, the forum was of great importance in terms of Azerbaijan's worldwide recognition. The event showed that rapid development is being observed in all spheres of life in Azerbaijan.

In turn, Wim Kok said the first South Caucasus Forum discussed issues related to religious and cultural differences. He also stressed the major conference held earlier in the Azerbaijani city of Ganja and noted its role in increasing the role of women in social and economic life of the society.

The final day of the forum saw discussions on "Intercultural and interfaith relations for functional communities".

Addressing the event, former President of Bulgaria Petar Stoyanov said that the most important thing is that people learn to understand each other.

According to Stoyanov, given the current requirements, it is necessary to alter educational curricula and teaching methods.

Speaking about inter-religious conflict in the Balkans, Stoyanov said Bulgaria managed to protect itself from it.

"Ten percent of the Bulgarian population is Turks and they enjoy all rights, run their parties and have mosques. Our country has a great tradition of peaceful co-existence," Stoyanov said.

Former Latvian President Valdis Zatlers said religious diversity must exist and be respected.

"Tolerance is needed not only in terms of maintaining stability of the state, but it is also necessary to create an inclusive religious society, and this way a secular state can be built," Zatlers said.

According to him, the state should be separated from religion, but the relationship should be built on the basis of certain rules.

"There should be rules for relations between the state and religion in any country," Zatlers said.

Addressing the event, Uruguay's former president Luis Alberto Lacalle said that even atheists have to understand that religions calling for conservatism are not related to politics. According to him, conservative religions call for the strengthening of society. The difference between fanaticism and religion is that religion unites people, while fanaticism is a dividing force, he said.

An emergency session on human trafficking was held as well.

Participants noted that human trafficking is one of the most profitable criminal activities, therefore, fighting it requires very substantial and long-term efforts.

In remarks at the event, moderator Stephen Cole, who heads Cole Production company, said Azerbaijan has achieved great success in the fight against human trafficking.

Executive Vice President of "End Human Trafficking Now" Aleya Hammad spoke about the activity of the organization. Hammad said the fight against this problem has reached great progress with the support of the private sector.