Dinner was hosted in honor of participants of the 23rd Annual Session of the OSCE PA on behalf of President Ilham Aliyev

Dinner has been hosted in honor of participants of the 23rd Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly entitled “Helsinki +40: Towards Human Security for All” on behalf of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev first had a conversation with the event participants.

Then the head of state made a speech at the event.

Speech of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev

-Dear guests,

I just want to say hello and welcome you once again to our country. It`s really a big honour and pleasure to host you in Azerbaijan. And I`m sure that you will keep the memories of your stay in our country in your heart for long years. Today, tomorrow and the coming days we will address important issues of international relations, conflicts and the issues related to international politics in general.

Now I want to say a couple of words about a different subject – about our culture, our heritage, our traditions. I hope that you will find time to get acquainted with the culture of Azerbaijan, its traditions, the lifestyle of our people, our historic monuments.

We are proud that the symbols of Baku like the Maiden Tower, Shirvanshahs` Palace and Old City are under protection of UNESCO and are part of world cultural heritage. And we also have monuments of modern Azerbaijan, modern symbols like National Flag Square, which symbolizes our statehood. It was created several years ago. Before it was a naval military base.

Flame Towers, which symbolize the modernity. Flame is life and Azerbaijan is the land of fire. The symbol of Baku is three flames, which you can see on medieval city walls.

The Heydar Aliyev Center, which is a modern architectural building. Here used to be an old factory, which operated for more than hundred years. Everything around was polluted and environment was in total devastation. Some people think that this architectural building symbolizes the wind of Baku because Baku is a very windy city. Others think it looks like waves of the Caspian Sea. Some others have other impressions. But I think that it symbolizes the modernization of our country. This is the main objective of our development – to modernize, create, become developed country and strengthen our independence. Independence is the highest value for our people. And never in the history of Azerbaijan, during all periods of our life, was our country as developed as today.

I wish you all the best. I hope you will enjoy your stay. I hope you will come and visit us again. And using this opportunity I`d like to invite you to come here next year in June when we will host the first European Games and be among our guests.

Have a pleasant evening. Thank you.