A regional conference was held on the subject of "Multicultural and tolerant values: historicity, continuity, modernity".

On May 5 in the city of Gabala in a conference hall of Qafqaz Sport hotel a regional conference was held on the subject of "Multicultural and tolerant values: historicity, continuity, modernity" with the organizational support of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations and Executive Power of the Gabala region. First of all the conferees visited the monument of the great leader Heydar Aliyev and laid flowers before it. The administration of the area, the staff of human rights bodies, heads of religious communities, clergy, and representatives of the public, the intellectuals and youth participated at the conference. In his speech the chief executive of the Gabala region Sabukhi Abdullaev noted that representatives of different religions and nationalities live in our country and that throughout many centuries various religious faiths have professed their beliefs freely in the conditions of mutual understanding. The speaker noted that in our country people have always been respectful to the language, religion, culture of other people. The chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations Mubariz Gurbanly in his speech noted that the keynote of the multicultural and tolerant atmosphere, the ideological principles reigning in Azerbaijan consist of the idea of Azerbaijanism, determined by the national leader Heydar Aliyev. No matter in what country we live, we are united by these principles. At the same time, Azerbaijan is an Islamic country, and the religion Islam, which is part of our cultural wealth, is professed by more than 1 billion people around the world. And we as a country possessing these values must protect Islam from external influences. After national independence was restored the return of the people to national cultural wealth was accelerated. Today the interreligious relations are at the highest level in our country. The freedom of worship is provided for everyone. At the same time the Islamic religion and the promotion of Islamic culture are paramount tasks, since the Islam religion is the part of national cultural wealth of our people and is the religion which is practised by most of the population of the country. It was noted that the President Ilham Aliyev regularly meets with the heads of religious communities, and shows great interest in their problems and needs. As a result of the policy pursued by the state in this sphere the interreligious tolerance is visually visible in the Azerbaijani society, owing to this there is no feeling of ethnic, religious hatred in the country. Thanks to successful domestic and foreign policy, multiculturalism and tolerance became a way of life for our people. Mubariz Gurbanli reminded that the year 2016 is declared by a relevant decree of the Head of state as the "year of multiculturalism" in our country, and noted that it once again shows to the whole world that the Azerbaijani people live in friendly and brotherly relations with other people. It was noted that in a multinational, multi-religious republic as our country is, representatives of all nationalities, religions and ethnic groups have identical rights and freedoms. Chief consultant of the Baku International Center of Multiculturalism Rashad Ilyasov, cadi of Management of Muslims of the Caucasus Jeyhun Rustamov, chairman of the Albano-Udi Christian religious community Robert Mobili in their speeches first of all noted political stability and economic development, as factors on which tolerance is based in our country. It was noted that as a result of correct and purposeful policy which is pursued by the President Ilham Aliyev, multiculturalism has become a state policy of Azerbaijan, a way of life of our people. It was also noted that Azerbaijan participates not only in the solution of its own problems, but also takes active part in the solution of global world problems. The fact that VII Global forum of United Nations Alliance of civilizations was held in Baku once again proves this point. At the end of the meeting discussions round the talks were carried out and questions of attendees were answered.