International conference in Baku highlights deportation problem (PHOTO)
As far as is known, the month of December is marked in Azerbaijan’s history as commemorative days related to the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the Armenian SSR. To widely cover this topic and attract the attention of the international community to the deportation of Azerbaijanis, an international conference, entitled “The Problem of Deportation of Peoples in the World in the Example of Azerbaijanis: Current Situation and Challenges" was held with the organization of the Baku Club of Political Scientists, the media support of News.Az International News Agency and the organizational support of Azerbaijan University of Languages.
The event, attended by high-ranking officials of the embassies of the United States, Israel, Morocco, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan and the EU Delegation in Azerbaijan, as well as local and foreign experts, featured an exchange of views on the deportation of Azerbaijanis from the territory of present-day Armenia four times throughout the last century.
Delivering a keynote speech at the conference, Zaur Mammadov, Director of the Baku Club of Political Scientists, called the deportation of peoples ‘one of the most difficult pages throughout history’. “Unfortunately, the Azerbaijanis have experienced this trouble and been subjected to deportation several times in the recent past. The severe consequences of deportation still manifest itself in the lives of those people today,” he said.
Greeting the guests, Kamal Abdulla, Rector of Azerbaijan University of Languages, spoke about the existence of tolerant attitude towards all peoples in Azerbaijan. He noted that deportation is one of the most tragic pages in world history. Kamal Abdulla presented a book in English called "The Onomastics of Truth" to the foreign and local guests of the event.
Then, the participants delivered speeches at the conference moderated by Ulviyya Zulfikar, Spokesperson for the Western Azerbaijan Community, Chief Editor of News.Az and Deputy Chairperson of the Baku Club of Political Scientists.
Making a speech at the conference, Rahman Shahhuseynli, the former professor of Doshisha University (Japan) and ADA University, touched upon the problem of deportation on a global scale. Speaking about the ancestral lands of Azerbaijanis in Western Azerbaijan, Shahhuseynli shared his memories.
Israeli expert Mikhail Finkel, who joined the conference via videoconferencing, touched on the legal issues related to deportation and provided information on the responsibility for this crime against humanity.
Zaur Sadigbeyli, a lawyer and a witness to the deportation, who joined the event from France, spoke about the problems they experienced during this horrified act and after the deportation.
Maxime Gauin, a French expert, a researcher of the Institute for Development and Diplomacy and a professor of ADA University, spoke about the researches he conducted on the deportation of Azerbaijanis in 1918-1920. He also pointed out the policy of ethnic cleansing carried out by Armenian nationalists against Azerbaijanis and disclosed new facts.
Before the human stories part, the event featured the display of a video highlighting the deportations and massacres that Azerbaijanis were subjected to throughout the last century.
Then, Ulviyya Zulfikar, Spokesperson for the Western Azerbaijan Community, Chief Editor of News.Az and Deputy Chairperson of the Baku Club of Political Scientists, spoke about the deportation of her grandfather from Irevan at a very young age in 1918 and the loss of her family. She stressed that Western Azerbaijanis are mainly intending to return to their ancestral lands and coexist there peacefully.
Algish Musayev, chief editor of “Yeni Azərbaycan” newspaper brought to the attention of the representatives of the diplomatic corps what they experienced while being deported from their native lands.
Making a closing speech at the event, Zaur Mammadov, Chairman of the Baku Club of Political Scientists, thanked the representatives of the diplomatic corps, local and foreign experts, as well as media representatives for attending the conference.
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