The Science, Culture, Education and Sports Affairs Committee and the Political Affairs and Regional Security Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of GUAM held videoconferenced meetings on 24 October, both attended also by the leader of our delegation to GUAM Elnur Allahverdiyev and the delegation members Nasib Mahamaliyev and Javid Osmanov.

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Sustaining education in military or emergency states and in times of pandemics, what moves are earmarked to be taken to align the GUAM countries’ educational systems with the European and world standards, and state backing to progress of sciences and national cultural ambiences in the GUAM region were the matters discussed at the meeting of the Science, Culture, Education and Sports Affairs Committee.

Elnur Allahverdiyev who moderated that meeting also covered the first agenda item about education processes’ sustenance under military, emergency and pandemic circumstances.  He revealed the corresponding Azerbaijani experience and state activities, the energetic involvement of the national legislature in this work and the legislative framework elaborated to date.

Education had to come to a halt in a large area due to Armenia’s choosing civilian communities and education institutions as its targets during the 44 days’ Patriotic War in the autumn of 2020, MP Allahverdiyev was saying. He also emphasised that the institutions were being rebuilt to world and European standards in the course of the liberated lands’ restoration pursuant to the relevant decrees of President Ilham Aliyev.

Javid Osmanov talked about the second item on the agenda, to wit, what is to be done to align the GUAM national educational systems with the European and world standards.

Technological advances put new requirements to the academic and educational system of any country; the Azerbaijani State, for one, is pursuing a course that is adequate to such challenges, according to MP Osmanov who also brought up the 44-day Patriotic War and the Azerbaijani lands’ deliverance from the Armenian occupation consequent to it. He went further to tell the meeting participants about the consequences of the occupation, the extensive efforts being made to eliminate those consequences, the current reforms within the education system of Azerbaijan and the work and state projects aiming to make this system toe the line according to the relevant world and European standards. The results secured to date were covered as well.

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Such subjects as the current security situation in the GUAM region and the participating states’ legislatures’ co-operation in security matters were discussed at the subsequent meeting of the Political Affairs and Regional Security Committee.

Elnur Allahverdiyev touched upon the outcomes of the 44 days’ Patriotic War at that meeting, too. He described the current state of affairs in the South Caucasus in the context of the Azerbaijani-Armenian relations and underlined that it was necessary to honour what agreements have been achieved to date so that peace and co-operation could be bolstered in the region.

The Press and Public Relations Department  

The Milli Majlis