December 6, 2006

A banquet in honor of Mehriban Aliyeva, the head of the Azerbaijan-US Interparliamentary Relations Working Group, on behalf of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce

First Lady of the Republic of Azerbaijan, head of the Azerbaijan-US Interparliamentary Relations Working Group, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva held a number of fruitful meetings in frame of her working visit to USA, December 4-7.

A banquet was given on December 6 at the Andrew Mellon Auditorium, Washington, in honor of First Lady of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva on behalf of the US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce. The banquet was attended by more than 300 persons including top-ranking officials from the White House, Department of State, Congressmen, renowned political and public figures, and ambassadors of foreign countries accredited to the United States.

Head of the Azerbaijan-US Interparliamentary Relations Working Group Mehriban Aliyeva addressed the banquet.

Speech by Mehriban Aliyeva:

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

Dear friends!

I am glad to see you all this evening. I am very delighted to be to US once again. Very pleasant hospitality was shown to me during my visit to US and I would like to express my gratitude to all our friends for that hospitality.

I would like to express my special gratitude to US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce for organizing this event. Since its establishment in 1995 the Chamber of Commerce has assisted to development of partnership between our states and propagated better popularization of Azerbaijan in the Untied States of America.

For long years the Chamber has sponsored a number of events and initiated many exhibitions, conferences and humanitarian projects. Its education projects such as Caspian Studies Program at Harvard University has opened new horizons for young Azeri professionals and students. I am aware of all these successful works and appreciate the achievements of the Chamber.

Dear friends, establishment of such strong relations between our states is appreciable. The United States was one of the first countries having recognized independence of Azerbaijan. Relations between Azerbaijan and US successfully developed in different spheres after we restored our independence. The United States of America is big partner to us in energy projects. We had faced a number of difficulties but we jointly achieved construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, the biggest energy project worldwide.

Azerbaijan is member of antiterrorist coalition and our soldiers serve shoulder to shoulder with their American colleagues in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo for affirmation of peace. We cooperate with US also in field of political reforms, development of democracy and human rights protection. Many delegations of US Congress have visited our country. Those visits have played important role in development of our bilateral links.

Visit recently paid to Baku by Senator Lugar, big statesman and sincere friend of Azerbaijan, was an important step taken towards expansion of our relations.

As head of the working group for Azerbaijan-America interparliamentary relations I think further enhancement of our ties is of great importance and I believe my visit to Washington along with MPs will serve that purpose.

Today, Azerbaijan lives an important phase of its development. Our economy rapidly increases. As you know, economy of Azerbaijan was assessed as the one developing with highest speed worldwide in 2005 and we will try to keep this factor in 2006.

Various regions of our country are in development. 500,000 workstations have been opened for last 3 years. I pay visits to a number of places of the country together with the President and feel deep pleasure and pride to see all these changes. New schools, hospitals, kindergartens, sport centers are under construction. New industrial and agricultural enterprises are opened. New roads are built.

We are paying special attention to education of youth. 735 secondary school buildings have been constructed for last 3 years. Last month the President of Azerbaijan signed a decree on State Program on lifting student scholarships for study of young talented Azerbaijanis abroad. This is a part of the strategy of the government on use of oil revenues in non-oil sector. I consider that making investment in our education, future and new generations is the most suitable form of investing.

I hope big part of students will come to America to get education. Support to education is one of major priorities in Heydar Aliyev Foundation's activity. Heydar Aliyev Foundation was established in May 2004 to render support to projects in field of culture, healthcare, education and science.

For last years Heydar Aliyev Foundation has implemented projects such as 'New school to new Azerbaijan', 'Development of children homes and boarding schools', 'Life without thalassemia', 'Highest care to diabetes-affected children', 'Assurance of access of the blind and visually impaired persons to ICT'. In frame of our programmes in field of improvement of education system over 200 schools have been built and equipped with necessary devices, computerized. Several of those schools are located in remotest villages.

A special part of our activity consisted of taking care about the children living in children homes. Places they live have been modernized, equipped with computers and libraries were created there. We cooperate with UNICEF to help children without family. Regarding the field of healthcare, Heydar Aliyev Foundation has helped more than 2500 people needing medical service. A special program is underway to assist children suffering from diabetes and blood diseases. We are realizing a joint project with UNDP to build special education center for visually impaired people.

Our Foundation attaches special attention to protection of our national cultural heritage. A number of historical and cultural monuments have been restored due to functioning of the Foundation. As you know, mugham is ancient folk music of Azerbaijan and for this goal we are building International Mugham Center in Baku on initiative of the Foundation and due to support of UNESCO. Protection of historical and cultural monuments is important for our country also because 20% of Azerbaijani territory is under occupation of Armenia. Thousands of historical, cultural and religious monuments in those areas have been destroyed by occupant forces. There are a million of refugees and IDPs in our country and certain part of them lives in tent camps still. We continue our efforts to inform the international community of these facts.

Heydar Aliyev Foundation widens its international activity. For last years we have arranged several international conferences with UNESCO, Washington Sciences Academy, Latin Culture Academy. Famous scholars from a number of countries, including USA attended those events. We held very fruitful discussions. I hope for continuation of our joint activities. In a word, our Foundation is willing to cooperate with international organizations and foundations.

Dear friends, Azerbaijan is ancient land possessing very rich cultural legacy and traditions. For long centuries our country has been bridge between West and East. We are proud of our diversity. Today, we have multinational and multi-religious society and Muslims, Christians, Jews and reps of other religions live here in peace as the one family. To us, values such as tolerance, dignity, respect to other cultures, faith in family, care to children and the elderly are necessary. All these values are also ones of America. That is why I think firmer cooperation between US and Azerbaijan is very necessary for our common success. Via the dialog we can do a number of works and understand each other better, and lastly, establish our log-term relations.

At the end, I once more express my gratitude to US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce for hospitality shown and providing an opportunity to meet with you. I hope you all, friends of Azerbaijan will continue your efforts for strengthening the relationship between Azerbaijan and the United States of America. Thanks twice. My best wishes to you and your families.

Thank you for attention.