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

multiculturalism’, or ‘the mod-

	el of multiculturalism in Azer-
	baijan’, which are widely used
	in scholarly literature. It is evi-
	dence of the growing interest
	in Azerbaijan’s experience in
	the management of ethnocultu­
	ral diversity and in the sphere
	of multiculturalism in general.
	Many states are now studying
	Azerbaijan’s experience in the
	sphere of multiculturalism.
	The Republic of Azerbaijan
	puts forward a more rational
	model of multiculturalism than
	the one suggested by West-
	ern countries, though they are
	the birthplace of the policy of
12	multiculturalism. As President

Ilham Aliyev noted, Azerbai-jan is already recognized as a centre of multiculturalism in the world. The unique role of Azerbaijan in the world is high-ly appreciated. In several of his speeches President Ilham Aliyev noted the importance for other countries of learning from the experience of Azer-baijan in the sphere of multi-culturalism: ‘Our experience is being studied. I am sure that if the experience of Azerbaijan is applied in other countries, in-ter-religious and inter-ethnic re-lations will work out well on a healthy foundation.’ The teach-ing of Azerbaijani Multicultur-alism as a discipline at foreign universities is a striking exam-ple of the benefit of this expe-rience.

The subject of Azerbaija-ni Multiculturalism has been taught at dozens of universi-ties in Azerbaijan and abroad for two years now. The devel-opment of a textbook on the subject is an important factor in its success. Taking this into account President Ilham Ali-

yev issued an instruction on 11 March 2016 ‘On the decla-ration of 2016 the Year of Mul-ticulturalism in Azerbaijan.’ The instruction contained an action plan, which included the crea-tion and publishing of a text-book on the subject.

The Baku International Mul-ticulturalism Centre compiled the textbook Azerbaijani Mul-ticulturalism with the help of distinguished scholars of Azer-baijani history, literature, phi-losophy, law, psychology, con-temporary politics, language, ethnography and international relations.

This textbook is the first resource to give a systematic presentation of the model of Azerbaijani multiculturalism. In its three sections the textbook analyses all the main points of Azerbaijani multiculturalism, in-cluding the objective and sub-jective reasons for its birth, its historical evolution, its sources in literature, art, science, phi-losophy, journalism, politics and law, its reflection in different forms of social consciousness

and its manifestation in the
domestic and foreign policy of
Azerbaijan.
The first section, which forms
the introductory part of the
textbook, deals with the discip­­
line, its methodologies, relation­­
ship to other social and hu-
manitarian	sciences, its main
functions	and	importance. It
also tackles theoretical issues
and other matters related to
multiculturalism		(the	essence of
multiculturalism; multiculturalism
as a social phenomenon, pol-
icy model and way of life; the
main reasons for the formation
of multiculturalism; comparati­
ve analysis of the assimilation
and isolation models of mul-
ticulturalism, their			strong and
weak points, etc.).
The second and third sec-
tions form the main part of the
book. In the second section
multiculturalism		is	presented
as the state policy of the Re-
public of Azerbaijan and the
way of life of the Azerbaijani
people. This section analyses
important issues from the the-
oretical point of view, including				13

‘Multicultural security and its main principles’ and ‘Azerbai-janism and multiculturalism’. The matchless roles of the National Leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and the current President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in the formation of Azerbaijani mul-ticulturalism are considered. Elsewhere the second sec-tion considers the objective and subjective reasons for the emergence of the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism, its historical evolution, literary, ar-tistic, scientific, philosophical, journalistic, political and legal sources, as well as the reflec-tion of multiculturalism in the socio-philosophical thought of Azerbaijan, its art and cul-ture. Finally, the second section looks at multiculturalism as an integral part of the domestic policy of the Republic of Azer-baijan, its influence on rela-tions between the state and religion and the protection of the ethnocultural values of the different ethnicities and peo-

14. 
    ples living there.
    

While the second section of the textbook analyses multi-culturalism in domestic policy, the third section focuses on multiculturalism in Azerbaijan’s international relations. This section presents a number of examples of the relationship between multiculturalism and the foreign policy of the Re-public of Azerbaijan, or to be more specific, it considers mul-ticulturalism as a factor in the country’s successful foreign policy. It analyses the Baku In-itiative, which recently entered the political vocabulary and enables the development of dialogue among different cul-tures. This section also looks at the role of the Heydar Ali-yev Foundation in the imple-mentation of multiculturalism policy and outlines the work of the Baku International Mul-ticulturalism Centre in promot-ing the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism. It examines the Republic of Azerbaijan’s cooperation with international organizations in implementing its policy of multiculturalism

and the role of the national diaspora abroad in promot-ing the Azerbaijani model of multiculturalism. This section concludes by presenting mod-els of multiculturalism in a number of countries (Cana-da, Australia, the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Moldova, Isra-el and Indonesia) and compar-ing them with the Azerbaijani model.
The textbook is designed for undergraduate students in Azerbaijan, undergraduate and postgraduate students abroad and anyone interested in the model of Azerbaijani multicul-turalism.