Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan Baku International Multiculturalism Centre Azerbaijani Multiculturalism Textbook for Higher Education

Chapter 2


MULTICULTURALISM AS AN INTEGRAL
PART OF NATIONAL SECURITY

Section II

Chapter 2

2.1. Multicultural Security and its Main Principles
The national security system has many components – economic
security, transport security, energy	security,	food	security	and
so on. Each of them taken separately or together is an important
component in the life of the state. It is also important to include
multicultural values as a national security component, as they are
integral parts of moral, spiritual and ideological life. The country
has to ensure multicultural security, as it ensures energy security,
economic and national security.
Multicultural security essentially	means	the	protection	of
the cultural values of all peoples, irrespective of their ethnicity,
religion, race and culture. If problems arise and grow in ensuring
the multicultural security of society, they will lead to confrontation
and conflicts on ethnic, religious and racial grounds. The increase
of ethnic and religious radicalism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and					43

Azerbaijani Multiculturalism

Islamophobia in several European countries in recent years is a striking example of the consequences of these problems.

Multicultural security consists of a number of principles, which oblige the state to be fair, confident and capable of qualitative renewal.

The principles of multicultural security are the following:

1. 
   All confessions and their members within society should be treated equally by the state from the political point of view.
   

In one of his speeches President Ilham Aliyev said that when he was abroad people often asked him in surprise about the friendship among people of different faiths and their leaders in Azerbaijan. They want to know the reason for it.

The question itself sounds strange to an Azerbaijani; modern-day Azerbaijanis feels this relationship in their heart, their morals, though may not know the reason. This attitude is as important for our life as the air we breathe and the water we drink. But this question deserves a serious reply, of course. That this climate prevails in Azerbaijan is connected to the equal treatment that the different confessions receive from the head of state. He does not differentiate between them from the political point of view. This equal political treatment in turn obliges the confessions to be tolerant towards one another and the state. Thus, one of the main and most important principles of multicultural security is to create a mechanism for the equal treatment of the different confessions within the country from the political point of view.

2. 
   The state should take care to protect the national diversity existing in the country.
   

Azerbaijan is a place where different peoples coexist in conditions of peace, friendship and brotherhood, sharing their joys

44. 
    and sorrows. The Udi, Ingiloy and the peoples of Budug, Khinaliq
    

and Qriz, who are all descendants of the ancient Albanians, the Jews, Talysh, Russians, Avars, Lezghi, Georgians, Kurds, and more recently Germans and other peoples and ethnicities have been able to transform this place into their common motherland. The Azerbaijani Armenians, who are of the same nationality as the separatists laying groundless claims to Azerbaijani land but who do not accept those claims, think of Azerbaijan as their motherland as well. The small ethnic groups of Khinaliq and Jek, who number the population of a small village and whose languages and ethnicities are not represented anywhere else, belong to Azerbaijan, too. Azerbaijan as a state thinks of the languages and cultural richness of these ethnicities as its own richness and strength. The National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev used to say: ‘The more peoples the state brings together, the richer it becomes, because each of them makes its own contribution to world culture and civilization.’ Today members of all peoples and ethnic groups can be seen working in all spheres of life in the independent Azerbaijan – in politics, the economy, education, culture, in a word, everywhere. The state’s equal treatment of all the peoples and ethnic groups residing in the country forms the basis of this principle.

Today the new, democratic society that has taken shape in Azerbaijan takes an active part in building the independent state. Whatever their ethnicity, a person feels a true citizen of Azerbaijan. Everyone can speak and write in their mother tongue and meet their other cultural needs. Article 44 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan says the following about the ethnicity of citizens: ‘Everyone has the right to keep their national identity. Nobody may be forced to change their national identity.’

Members of different peoples and ethnic groups living in Azerbaijan can be found today in every walk of life – politics, the economy, education, sport, culture, in a word, everywhere.

Section II

Chapter 2

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Azerbaijani Multiculturalism

3. 
   Support from the state and society for the protection and development of ethnocultural diversity.
   

All the conditions are in place for the ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan to study their own literature and history. As a result, the minorities do not feel alien in their own country. Azerbaijan’s cultural context is a moral and spiritual space for them. This political position is one of Azerbaijan’s main priorities today.

Since the first years of independence there have been secondary schools with instruction in Russian and Georgian alongside Azerbaijani schools. Besides, 108 Lezghi schools teach in the Lezghi language (first to ninth years). In some districts of the republic where ethnic minorities predominate (Avar, Kurd, Lezghi, Talysh, Sakhur, Tat, Udi, Khinaliq, etc.) teaching in the primary classes is in the native languages. In 2003 a private Jewish secondary school opened in Baku, which teaches Hebrew, Jewish history and culture. Alphabet books, lesson programmes, other textbooks and dictionaries for schoolchildren are regularly published in Russian, Avar, Talysh, Tat, Udi, Hebrew and the Khinaliq language at the expense of the state.

Analysis of the example of multicultural security in Azerbaijan shows that if its principles are followed carefully, the country is able to make the most of its rich domestic resources and to enhance its international image. This was stressed many times by foreign participants in the UN Alliance of Civilizations Seventh Global Forum held in Baku. Many peoples still divide into ‘us and them’, but for Azerbaijani citizens this confrontation between ‘us and them’ has declined in importance since the Middle Ages. Today the confrontation is in its ‘mildest’ form yet.