The “World Youth Festival”, held between 13th and 20th of October 2011, has successfully come to an end with 100 young people from 50 countries participating in it. The agenda of the 7-day festival was very interesting and rich. The first two days of the festival were held in Baku where the participants did sightseeing in the capital city and visited among others the Alley of Honor, the Maiden Tower and the Shirvanshahs Palace.
The official opening ceremony of the project was held on the 15th of October 2011 in Ganja, with important political figures participating in the ceremony. Following the opening ceremony, the participants went to the place where the Ganja Youth House is going to be built, and symbolic balloons were released into the air after the speeches of the officials. During the festival, an open-air gala concert dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the independence of the Azerbaijan Republic and the culture nights of the countries represented by the participants, as well as different entertainment programmes were held. During the remaining days, the festival continued in Ganja, while tours to other regions of the country were organized. On the last day of the festival, the participants visited the Shaki and Gabala regions of Azerbaijan where they familiarized with Shaki Khans’ Palace and the Caravansaray.
The main idea of the project was to bring together young people from all over the world, promote the culture, tradition and rich history of Azerbaijan and deliver a message of peace and unity to the world. Participants adopted the Ganja Declaration stating that they would “accept that the youth are a positive force in society and have a potential to make a great contribution to development, recognize the territorial integrity of participating states, support projects and programmes implemented for the benefit of humankind and show tolerance to religious, language, political and cultural differences of people” and called on the international community to support them.
The official partners of the project were the Ganja City Executive Power, the Azerbaijan Republic’s Ministry of Youth and Sports, the IRELI Public Union, the Bridge to the Future, YEU International, the “E-Youth” organization from Turkey, AIESEC Azerbaijan and Bakcell company.
Seymur Valiyev
International project coordinator
“Bridge to the Future” Youth Public Union