INTERVIEWS
By becoming DEMYC member, YAP Youth Wing achieved tremendous success on the European scale
Q: You have recently visited Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. What success did this visit mark for YAP Youth Wing?
A: First of all I would like to say that being the Youth Wing of the New Azerbaijan Party we declared last year that in 2014 apart from making our contribution to the party`s activities in the country, we will also spare no efforts to help improve the party`s international image. We have embarked on a new path in this process.
A couple of days ago a delegation of the New Azerbaijan Party`s Youth Wing attended a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC) and an international conference held in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina respectively.
The Democrat Youth Community of Europe is the international umbrella organisation of the youth wings of Christian-Democratic, Conservative and like-minded parties of Europe. With currently now more than one million affiliates in its member organisations, DEMYC is one of the strongest political youth organisations in Europe.
DEMYC’s aim is to further contacts and strengthen co-operation between its member organisations from different European countries and thereby to contribute to a united Europe.
The eventd in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina focused on topical political and economic issues, as well as the expansion of cooperation among DEMYC member countries, and implementation of joint projects.
At the events, we presented a promotional video highlighting our most painful problem, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. In debates on the topic, we laid out Azerbaijan`s position on the dispute, and said that Nagorno-Karabakh had always been an integral part of Azerbaijan, and that we would never allow the establishment of the second Armenian state on Azerbaijani soil. We informed the conference participants of the history and consequences of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, particularly the occupation of 20 percent of our lands and the emergence of over million refugees and IDPs.
Q: We would like you to highlight the importance of Youth Wing`s becoming DEMYC member.
A: After we made the presentation the conference participants considered several issues on the agenda. One of them was YAP Youth Wing`s affiliation with DEMYC. With great pleasure and proud I must say that all members of DEMYC supported the Youth Wing`s membership bid, and for the first time we are represented in such a high-level international organization. I think this is a remarkable event for the Azerbaijani youth. By becoming DEMYC member, YAP Youth Wing achieved tremendous success on the European scale.
Q: What about your future plans?
A: One of the priorities of the Youth Wing is to become members of the youth organizations of the European People`s Party. We are now in close negotiations with many of them, and I believe this will yield positive results. We also attach particular importance to developing our bilateral relations with youth wings of foreign political parties. We maintain friendly relations with our counterpart from many foreign countries.
We also plan to organize a visit of young delegates representing foreign parties to Azerbaijan. by doing so we want to promote our democratic development and show that Azerbaijan is committed to democratic values.
In the near future, a delegation of the Georgian ruling party ONNET will pay a visit to Azerbaijan. A DEMYC delegation is also expected to visit our country. We continue talks with our counterparts from Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia and other European countries. We want to invited young politicians of these countries to Azerbaijan.
Q: Could you please highlight the Summer School project?
A: We have been carrying out Summer School project since 2007. As usual this year`s Summer School took place in beautiful parts of our country. It was attended by the record number of participants.
Youth will stay in beautiful hotels, and all conditions will be created to ensure their leisure. Participants of the Summer School are usually visited by parliamentarians representing the New Azerbaijan Party, heads of Milli Majlis committees and government representatives.
The school was arranged both in Lerik and Oghuz. It saw active participation of youth in socio-political processes.
This is very important in terms of increasing young people`s leadership and management abilities, their professionalism. I would like to underline the fact that the leadership of YAP places a strong emphasis on this project, which means open dialogue between the leadership and youth.