Baku International Multiculturalism Center (BIMC) is ready to host the next winter school, which will bring together about 30 foreign students from 20 countries, including representatives of higher educational institutions of Azerbaijan. Representatives of foreign universities that have attended the course of Azerbaijani multiculturalism and have ideas about the life of the Azerbaijani state, its history and culture were invited to the school.

The selection was made among hundreds of students from many countries who were provided with the opportunity to participate through online competition. The authors’ essays presented to the jury of the BIMC revealed the most qualified applicants.

The selected students demonstrated a deep knowledge of the life and past of Azerbaijan, and they will be in the country for several days and get acquainted with the traditions of ethno-religious diversity.

In line with the established tradition, school participants will gather in Baku, and then relocate to the northern region with the center in Guba. The basis of the educational-methodical and practical work of the school will be lectures by Azerbaijani scientists and specialists. The interactive style of interaction between lecturers and students will allow school participants to learn the subtleties of life of national and religious minorities, to acquire theoretical and practical skills of the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism.

Visits to places of worship, meetings with communities and discussions on burning issues are also included in the winter school curriculum.

Participants of the tenth Azerbaijani multiculturalism school, getting acquainted with the peculiarities of the national model of cultural diversity, will witness the ongoing global intercultural dialogue, which is pushing its boundaries, having an effective impact on the process of international detente.

Azerbaijan, being an active country in the program of international cultural and humanitarian cooperation, is making great efforts and actions that are recognized by world circles. Demonstrating openness, tolerance and willingness to use their capabilities in building new bridges of trust and exchange, the country's national institutions are constantly striving for the emergence of new formats in maintaining dialogue morality.

The northern region of Azerbaijan has been one of the living centers of intercultural exchange since ancient times. Representatives of many nations and religious communities who support the policy of natural convergence still live here. Diversity is the norm for the inhabitants of that region. Preserving their identity, representatives of minorities have never experienced problems with integration, using their language, searching for means and forms of self-expression. Therefore, for a long time, the structure of local life was a natural fact that seemed unusual for specialists in ethnography, linguistics, and historiography. Studying the origins of a measured and self-sufficient life, which is based on the factor of cultural and historical diversity, is an opportunity to study a unique phenomenon today.

For the first time, students from Colombia, Sao Tome and Principe will take part in the winter school. As part of the curriculum, trips to Khachmaz, Gusar, Gyrmyzy Gasaba and other corners of the northern region of our country are provided. Meetings are planned with local communities, during which discussions will be held on various topics in the context of interethnic and interreligious relations.

In the center of attention of the school there will be pressing problems of our time such as the fight against migration, the popularization of various models of multiculturalism in the light of the challenges of the era, the regulation of stabilizing mechanisms in the context of ethno-religious diversity, etc.

Most burning issues will be discussed during student meetings with Chairman of the BIMC Supervisory Board, academician and people's writer Kamal Abdullaev, chairman of the State Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for the Work with Religious Organizations Mubariz Gurbanli, chairman of the Caucasus Muslims’ Board Sheikh ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade and other prominent state and public figures.

As part of the winter school’s work program, a thematic presentation of the “Young Friends of Azerbaijan” club will be held, which continues the campaign of popularization of Azerbaijani priorities in the world, initiated by its activists.

The number of members of this social structure is growing every year. Having been in contact with the natural realities of Azerbaijan, young citizens from dozens of countries then give comprehensive information to their peers, compatriots about the life of modern Azerbaijan, about the country's successes in the economy and national development, about the essence of the Karabakh conflict.

The program of the International School of Multiculturalism promises a multifaceted creative semester, which will allow participants to personally recognize the advantages of the national model of cultural pluralism of Azerbaijan, which has gained worldwide recognition.

Tofig Abbasov

Senior advisor, Baku International Multiculturalism Center