An international conference with the theme “Azerbaijan 2008: Paths to Modernisation” was held in Baku on Friday, 23 May 2008, jointly organised by LINKS and the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan.
Local and foreign speakers at the conferences included:
Mrs Bahar Muradova, Deputy Speaker of Parliament of Azerbaijan, Mr Elnur Aslanov, Head of the Political Analysis and Information provision department in the Presidential Administration; Dr Elkhan Nuriyev, Director of the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan, Dennis Sammut, Executive Director, LINKS, UK, Dr Azer Amiraslanov MP, Deputy Chairman, Committee on Economic Policy, Azerbaijan Parliament; Mr Shahmar Movsumov, Executive Director, State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan; Ambassador Jose-Luis Ferrero, Head of the OSCE Office in Azerbaijan, Professor Dr Johannes Rau, Senior Fellow, Forum on International Studies, Germany, Dr Ertan Aydin, President Pollmark Survey, Turkey, Dr Fazil Gazanfaroglu MP, Chairman of the Great Creation Party, Azerbaijan, Mr Ramin Isayev, Director Euro-Atlantic Centre, Baku, Dr Yevgeniy Kozhokin, Director Russian Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr Cem Oguz, Political Analyst, Turkish Daily News, Dr Asim Mollazadeh MP, Chairman of the Democratic Reforms Party, Dr Alexsey Vlasov, Director Analytic Centre for Post Soviet Studies at Moscow State University, Ambassador Alain Guidetti, Swiss Ambassador to Azerbaijan and Dr Vagif Sadigov, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan.
Around seventy participants attended the conference, including around twenty members of Parliament, several Ambassadors and diplomats, representatives of NGOs and state officials.
Opening remarks were made by Elkan Nuriyev, Elnur Aslanov, Bahar Muradova and Dennis Sammut.
The first session of the conference focused on Azerbaijan Development strategy from stability to modernisation. The second session of the conference in the afternoon focused on the theme: Azerbaijan in the international focus: foreign policy options and priorities.
The meeting was given extensive coverage on the evening news broadcasts on all TV channels and in the reports of news agencies.
