Dear guests, dear compatriots, esteemed scholars,
In his address to the forum participants, President Ilham Aliyev placed special emphasis on organising the diaspora, preserving the mother tongue, and supporting Azerbaijani scholars and researchers in reconstruction work in Karabakh.
The Forum of Azerbaijani Scientists Living Abroad is one of the major projects implemented by the Committee, and the foundation for this idea was laid in 2018. At that time we met with our scholars and rectors, future directions for the State Committee on Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan in this field were defined, and these issues were included in the Roadmap.
Conveying the truth about Karabakh to the international community, responding to malicious plans against our country, and of course focusing attention on the development of liberated territories occupy a special place in the activity of the State Committee on Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Each of our compatriots living abroad is valuable to us, and they are contributing in these areas.
Time has shown that the foundation of our success in any field is our unity. That is why the State Committee on Diaspora Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan has structured its main activity precisely in this direction. With the support of the Azerbaijani state, 30 Azerbaijan Houses have been opened in various foreign countries.
The Azerbaijani state is also taking special steps to expand educational opportunities for our compatriots living abroad and to help the new diaspora generation learn the mother tongue. The weekend schools named Karabakh, opened on the initiative of First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, are operating successfully. Today more than 100 Azerbaijani weekend schools have been opened worldwide, and each has been provided with the necessary resources. Young Azerbaijanis abroad can benefit from these schools. A special textbook has been published for weekend schools. In addition, the teaching resource "A grammar of contemporary Azerbaijani" has been prepared for foreigners who wish to learn Azerbaijani.
Ensuring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and later the Fifth Victory Congress of World Azerbaijanis held in Shusha gave a strong impetus to the diaspora movement. In his speech at the Fifth Victory Congress of World Azerbaijanis, President Ilham Aliyev defined the future activity of the Azerbaijani diaspora in programmatic form and set major tasks before the diaspora. I would say that after all this, unshakeable unity emerged within the diaspora and everyone demonstrated great solidarity in supporting processes underway in Azerbaijan.
We have been working for several years on networking scholars abroad, holding many meetings and discussing problems. Bringing together Azerbaijani scholars living abroad required a certain amount of time. Of course, the support and care of the Azerbaijani state for organising scholars abroad is a priority issue, but our expectation is that in the next stage our scholars will contribute both to the countries where they live and to Azerbaijan. We want young scholars abroad to achieve even greater success by drawing on the experience of the previous generation. All opportunities exist for this. I believe that the opening of Karabakh University in Khankendi will also create good opportunities in this direction. If Azerbaijani scholars living abroad wish to work at that higher education institution, the State Committee on Diaspora Affairs will support them in this endeavour.
Organising forums for Azerbaijani doctors, engineers, students and cultural figures living abroad are also steps taken in this direction. Such forums have been held in Europe and the United States. Regarding students, I would also add that every year young Azerbaijanis go abroad to study within the possibilities offered by the Azerbaijani state. What attracts us most here is that those students join the diaspora movement to strengthen existing diaspora organisations. For nearly two years we have been organising forums for Azerbaijani students studying in various foreign countries for this purpose.
We have a project called "Brain Gain". Through this project we build serious ties with prestigious foreign centres of science. We can present the database we have obtained to our scholars and universities. In this way our higher education institutions can establish direct links with foreign universities and scientific centres, and this will make a serious contribution to the development of scientific potential.
If we want development, we must also speak about problems. If we want our scholars to develop, gain prestige in foreign countries and in future support the Azerbaijani state by using that prestige, we must of course discuss many issues, including existing problems. One of the greatest obstacles to development is the language barrier. Perfect command of English and possession of technical knowledge are very important for access to scientific sources. Another important problem is lack of access to international scientific resources and databases. We very much want our scholars to pay attention to these issues.
At the same time, publication of our scholars' articles in more internationally indexed journals is one of the important issues. Opportunities for our scholars to access those journals can also be implemented through members of the diaspora living abroad.
I would also like to note one more issue. We very much want our scholars abroad to publish more books and for those books to be presented to international libraries. Incidentally, the Committee has presented various publications to more than 400 libraries abroad.
We are focused on creating more professional associations and attach support and importance to establishing them. All of this rests on the desire that our scholars living abroad should be able to show their support for Azerbaijani science and processes taking place in our country.
Once again I say that I am glad to see each of you in our native land. I wish the forum success and express my gratitude to everyone who supports this important event.
