Among the guests of the conference dedicated to the 92th anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic, there was a professor of Ankara Bilkent University Dr. Hakan Kirimli, political scientist Dr. Zardusht Alizade,  Dr. Kamran Ismayilov from the National Academy of Sciences and local expert Dr. Habibullah Manafly from Ganja, as well as local intellectuals, civil society activists, students and journalists.

Turkish professor Dr. Hakan Kirimly shared some insights about his country’s experience on the protection of rights of the national minorities.

The conference was held with support of National Endowment for Democracy and German Marshal Fund of the United States.

Among the participants of the conference were the President of CNIS, Dr. Leila Alieva, Professor of Istanbul Yeditepe University, Dr. Mesut Casin, historian Hadji Mammadov, military analyst Cesur Sumerenly, local expert Fuzuli Manafov, as well as representatives of civil society, executive power of Gakh city, teachers and students.

Upon her opening remarks, Leila Alieva stressed the importance of discussions about military and state and society relations in today’s Azerbaijan.

Doktor Mesut Casin shared his analysis about the role of the military forces in modern Turkey while historian Dr. Hadji Mammadov made an interesting presentation about military development during Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918.

At the end of the conference, the participants received a special CNIS edition titled “Democratic Values in the History of Azerbaijan.”

The conference was held within a project supported by the National Endowment for Democracy and German Marshall Foundation.

Leyla Alieyva, Head of the Center for National and International Studies delivered the opening address at the conference and stated that the main purpose of this conference is to inform on establishment and development of local autonomous bodies in Azerbaijan and Turkey and to share the experience gained by Turkey in this direction. “Just 100 years ago all positions were not appointed, but were rather elected.” – Leyla Aliyeva stated.

Kamran Ismayilov, scientist-historian speaking about the history of the local autonomous bodies emphasized that “in 1918 the self-government traditions were renewed by establishment of the Azerbaijan People’s Republic and it progressively developed.”

Speaking about the formation of the autonomous bodies in Turkey Turker Tashansu stated that “Turkey lags behind Azerbaijan from the standpoint of historical development of local autonomous bodies. When the legislation on self-government was adopted in the Azerbaijan People’s Republic, Turkey was under occupation.” 

The Turkey scientist emphasized that: “The main duty of the self-government system is to form political elite in the country. In other words, the autonomous body is a political school. Today, 9/10 politicians in Turkey are from the autonomous bodies.” 

Speaking on the self-government development in Ismayilli region Sarkar Mardanov stated that “The municipalities almost do not have any power. The same work is done both by municipalities and executive authorities. There are also financial problems.  Income of the municipality of Ismayilli region for 2009 was totally 31 thousand manats, and only 6 thousand manats were spent for the population needs, the rest was spent for taxes and administrative fees.”

Expert Abil Bayramov spoke about the development and problems of the self-government of the present period. “Upon accession to the European Charter by Azerbaijan in relation to local self-government, a number of works have been carried out in this direction.  Though we positively evaluate the merging of municipalities, there are still some problems in this field. The problems such as specification of the municipalities’ power and expansion of financial opportunities should be stated among them.”

Closing the conference Leyla Aliyeva stated that the municipalities should be provided with liberty of action to fulfill effectively their obligations. “By providing the people with more resources and authority, the state ensures its own power.” – Leyla Aliyeva finished her speech.

Valeh Salehov, representative of Executive Power of Ismayilli region and Vusal Majidov, Chairman of Ismayilli Municipality took part in the event.

The conference was held with the support of National  Endowment for Democracy and German Marshall Fund.

In her keynote address the president of Center for National and International Studies, political analyst Leyla Aliyeva underlined that one of the major Azerbaijan’s achievements is construction of a secular society. And for this “Azerbaijan Democratic Republic which laid the foundation for tradition of construction of secular society in Azerbaijan must take great credit”, Leyla Aliyeva noted.

Kamran Ismayilov, historian,  gave political assessment to the role of ADR in construction of secular society.  “Unfortunately, relationship between state and religion during ADR has not been sufficiently studied by historiography. It is precisely under ADR that laicism was, for the first time, proclaimed as official state policy”, Kamran Ismayilov stated.      

Professor Alaeddin Yalchynkaya telling about Turkish experience of construction of secular society remarked  “reforms in any sphere shall be based on common sense and pluralism of opinions. Ataturk, for instance, having conducted reforms of the Turkish language and being publically criticized for that, after 3 years admitted that they were blundering”.

Hikmet Hadjizadeh, political analyst in his speech on “Religion and State in post-Soviet Azerbaijan” noted that “nowadays Azerbaijan is experiencing a profound crisis in relationship between religion and state”.  “Gгeat problems are encountered in freedom of belief and religion. Meanwhile, no one has the right to limit this right.  At the same time, every believer is to display tolerance. Religious freedom can be unrestricted unless it does not present a real threat for the society”, – emphasized political analyst.

The representatives of southern regions Esmira Turkhida and Zair Amanov – have also made speeches at the conference, underlining the peculiarities of relationship between religion and state in the region.

In their closing speeches  Leyla Aliyeva , Kamran Ismayilov and Hikmet Hadjizade emphasized the necessity to conduct regular and open discussions of these issues, high culture and  tolerance and the necessity for an overall context of reforms in the society.

Rondine Citadella della Pace after the success of last year Caucasus Conference for Peace

The students selected will have the opportunity to be hosted (all the costs will be covered by the association), approximately for 1/3 years, at the International Hall of Residence of Rondine, (Arezzo, Tuscany) and to attend BA (3 years) or MA (1 year) at Italian Universities.

The deadline is 10^th April 2010.

For more information and to apply please contact Ms Leila Aliyeva at leilalibek@yahoo.com

 Dr. Leyla Aliyeva, head of the Center for National and International Studies opened the conference with welcome speech and emphasized that the main purpose of the conference is to study and compare an experience of the state building in transition periods of Azerbaijan and Turkey and to review them in the historical context. “As far back as 92 years ago when the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic was established the laws adopted by the government left far behind the laws of many European countries. For instance, the laws on equal voting women’s rights were adopted in France only in the 50s of the last century and in Switzerland only in the 60s”.

 Dr. Irada Baghirova, a historian, spoke about the formation of state, based on the modern  rule of law,  in Azerbaijan and stated that in Azerbaijan it began at the end of the 19th century. “At early 20 century Baku Municipality had already operated in Baku. But today there is no any Baku municipality…”. She stated: “The issue of laying of the water pipe to Baku was discussed for more than 10 years and all discussions were highlighted in the mass media. And it is another striking demonstration of the rule-of-law state.”

Speaking about the development of the  rule of law in Turkey Ms.Zehra Odyakmaz stressed that: “The judicial system of Turkey is excellent. 8 independent courts which do not interfere in each-other affairs and established as a pyramid system  operate in Turkey. This judicial system is inherited by us from Anatolia Seljuks and then it had been improved in the periods of Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkish. But the only problem is human factor. Due to lack of judges or professionalism, its implementation faces some problems. Formation of qualified and honest judges begins from the family, and then it continues at school and in professional activity: – emphasized Prof.Ms.Zehra Odyakmaz.

After the speech of Mubariz Khalilov, a scholar from Hajigabul city, Dr. Alasger Mammedli, a lawyer, characterized the development of the rule of law in Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet period and the controversies related to this process.   

At the end of the conference Leila Alieva thanked the guests who had accepted the invitation and took part at the conference, and made closing speech.

The conference was held with support of National Endowment for Democracy and German Marshal Fund of the United States.

L. Alieva met with a number of experts of multilateral cooperation  in the areas of energy and transportation, politics and security, trade and commerce. The research trip also included meetings with the representatives of the EU delegation in Kazakhstan.

The results of the research will be reflected in the final policy paper on sub regional multilateralism in the Caspian basin.

Leyla Aliyeva, President of Center for National and International Studies opened the conference and informed on modern democratic development of Azerbaijan and the civil society’s role in this development.  In her speech she emphasized that “today, there exist two conflicting opinions on the civil society’s role in the development of democracy. On the one hand, some people emphasize that the civil society has been strengthening recently. But some analysts persisting on slackening of democracy in Azerbaijan try to prove the weakness of civil society. Today, we have gathered to clear up this or other questions”, and then she gave the floor to Aicha Ergun.

Aicha Ergun began her speech with historical excursion to establishment of civil society and its development in Turkey. “Though there were a number of civic organizations in Turkey up to 1980s, they could not be named as “civil society”. At that time one could meet with different names such as organization, club, circle, etc. But all of them were acting on voluntary bases. Upon the military coup happened in the early 1980s, non-governmental organizations engaged in human rights and gender issues were established”, said Aicha Ergun. According to the Turkish scientist, in the modern sense of the word, non-governmental organizations in Turkey established in large numbers in the early 2000s. “In the early 2000s the civil societies began to act having their own financial resources. From that time the process of Turkey’s accession to the international organizations and implementation of different projects started “, emphasized Ms.Aicha Ergun.

Then the floor was given to Hikmet Hajizade, independent political expert. He said that the civil society in Azerbaijan was developing very weakly. “Today the civil society faces both internal and external repression.” Hikmet Hajizade also emphasized that “in general, “civil society” (vetendash cemiyyeti) expression is wrong and it should be replaced by “civil society” (mulki cemiyyet). This notion was used during the soviet time and it is an expression thought up by the Russians.”

 “Today, the civil society should be more active, because civil society is a real base for democratic development of the country”, said Hikmet Hajizade and yielded the floor. 

Rashad Shirin, a young representative of the civil society emphasized in his speech that now the civil society should approach to the solution of the issues practically and it should define “what and how to solve.” He sees the way out of the situation only by establishing “thought and thinking” centers. According to Rashad Shirinov, there was no such kind of center in the country. Maybe someone established such center, but there was no any thinking center up till now that could affect the thinking of the people on a mass scale”, emphasized Rashid Shirinov. 

In his speech Ilgar Mamadov said that “every society should not called as civil society. Only the societies that do not commit any illegal action and prejudice to the society could be considered as civil society.”  According to Ilgar Mammadov, financing of such kind of societies “weakens the democratic norms in the country.”

At the end of the conference Leyla Aliyeva thanked the guests who had accepted the invitation and took part at the conference, and made closing speech.

The conference was held by support of National Endowment for Democracy (NED).

During the trip Leila Alieva met with the independent experts,  diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russian Federation, representatives of RELEX Moscow. The subject of research was the state of sub regional  multilateralism in the Caspian Sea basin, the cooperation in the areas of energy and transportation, politics and security, environment and maritime issues, along with trade and commerce.

The results of the research will be incorporated in the policy paper on EU policies and  the multilateralism in the Caspian Sea basin– the final product of the EU4Seas project.

Among the participants of the conference were the President of CNIS, Dr. Leila Alieva, Professor of Middle East Technical University, Dr. Ayse Ayata, political analyst Zafar Guliyev, local expert from Sumgayit, Esabeli Mustafayev, as well as representatives of political parties and civil society, students.

Upon her opening remarks, Leila Alieva stressed the importance of discussions about political pluralism and electoral democracy in today’s Azerbaijan.

Doktor Maryam Orujlu talked about emergence of political pluralism and electoral traditions in Azerbaijan at the turn of XIX and XX centuries. Political analyst Zafar Guliyev shared his analysis about elections and pluralism in modern Azerbaijan while Esabeli Mustafayev made an interesting presentation about elections and political pluralism in the city of Sumgayit and challenges that they face.

Professor Dr. Ayse Ayata shared her insights about Turkey’s electoral history and experience as well as political pluralism.

At the end of the conference, the participants received a special CNIS edition titled “Democratic Values in the History of Azerbaijan.”

The conference was held within a project supported by the National Endowment for Democracy.