Today, the international conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Azerbaijan Democratic Republic is being held at ADA University in Baku, Eurasia Diary reports.
The heads of diplomatic missions and representative offices of international organizations, representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deputies of the Parliament (Milli Majlis), academics, students and teachers of the ADA University, representatives of civil society and journalists take part in the official event.
Hafiz Pashayev, the rector of the ADA University, opened the event. In his opening speech, he stressed that the graduation ceremony of ADA University is going to be held tomorrow under the slogan of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic. He also said that the President Ilham Aliyev will be a keynote speaker at tomorrow's graduation ceremony.
The rector also said that the ADA University has done a large-scale activities related to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the establishment of Azerbaijani Democratic Republic. He showed the audience a book, written by students of ADA and published by the University. According to him, the students in their essays described the life stories of the people whom the first government of the Azerbaijani Democratic Republic sent to study abroad and then they returned back to the Motherland. According to the results of studies conducted by the authors, when these students returned back from abroad, they were not happy with what they saw: as is known, the first Azerbaijan Republic did not last long.
Hafiz Pashayev also stressed about the most important thing what Azerbaijan has as a heritage from the first republic. "The people and the government of the first Azerbaijan Democratic Republic made the international community to know about the inspiration of the Azerbaijani people towards independence. In a new time of our independence it helped us a lot”, he said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov, said that Azerbaijan is not only the first country in the Muslim world where the women were given the right to study and vote, but it is also the first country where the first democracy in the East was founded.
"Azerbaijan Democratic Republic was formed on May 28 in 1918. Despite the internal and external challenges associated with the collapse of the Russian Empire, the republic was able to create the state institutions and arouse the confidence among the population of the country. Having existed for almost two years, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic actively engaged in building the state, democracy and the formation of the people's self-identity.
Now we clearly observe that the big powers consider Azerbaijan as one of the strongest players in the region. This was made possible by the continuity of the principles that were laid down a century ago. "
Natalia Guliyeva, Eurasia Diary
