On December 26, the American Education Center at the University of Foreign Languages hosted a meeting between Asim Mollazade, chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party, and students of the university. The topic of the meeting was democratic development and tolerance.
Participants in the meeting discussed Azerbaijan's role in the world civilization, the history and traditions of tolerance in Azerbaijan.
Psychologist Elmir Akbar opened the event, saying that tolerance is not welcome in medicine. He said: "Those who study medicine know that tolerance does not kill negative germs and further strengthens their sustainability. In this regard, I have come across the problem in the religious sphere. For some reason, we are tolerant to religious forces, but they are not tolerant to us."
Speaking after that was the guest of the event, MP Asim Mollazade. The MP's speech was dedicated to the bright contribution of Azerbaijan to the world culture and to its leading role in the Turkic and Islamic world. The MP mentioned: "The first woman who wrote an opera in the Turkic and Islamic world, the first ballerina and the first pilot woman came from Azerbaijan. In this respect, Azerbaijan is the leading state in the Turkic world. Still, even in 1897, great Ali Bey Huseinzade wrote a letter to Ziya Gokalp and reminded that the name of the nation was Turks and offered that Turkey should be the name of the country. Later, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk positively evaluated this proposal. As representatives of the nation, we should be proud of it.
People often evaluate tolerance as patience. In other words, we do not agree, but we have to tolerate. I think that there should be mutual tolerance. Throughout history, ethnic groups downtrodden in different countries arrived in Azerbaijan and settled here. For example, we can show Germans, Jews and others. This case shows the development of the traditions of tolerance in Azerbaijan. But the rights of the Azerbaijani people have always been violated. During the Russian occupation the Azerbaijani men were not called to the military service and were not assigned to high positions. High positions could be only achieved by accepting the appropriate views of the Orthodox Church. At that time the Armenians were moved to Azerbaijan from the territory of the Ottoman Empire and Iran and artificially settled here, which eventually led to the appearance of a buffer zone. All this was done against Azerbaijan.
When visiting Turkey, I always tell them that they could have a great empire and an oustanding state, but they have never had and will never have Uzeyir Hajibeyli, Fikret Amirov, or Gara Garayev of their own. At the beginning of the twentieth century there was perhaps the core of the transformation of Azerbaijan into a cultural center. Because different personalities from Azerbaijan studied in different languages at the world's leading universities and turned Azerbaijan into the thinking center of the Turkic and Islamic world.
As for the issue of religion, the existing facts arise from social problems. Social problems lead to despair, and people in despair always find themselves in religion. Although they spend serious funds, I do not believe they will manage to destroy the Azerbaijani culture with its traditions of tolerance. Our salvation is in education and culture."
At the end of the event Asim Mollazade answered questions from the students and memorable photos of the event were shot.
Seymur
ANN.Az
