Ouagadougou: The opening ceremony of the second edition of the World Media Forum was held on Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Shusha, Azerbaijan, in the presence of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.The second edition of the forum will be held under the title: 'Demystifying false information: fighting disinformation', from July 20 to 22, 2024, with the participation of more than 150 guests from around fifty countries, including representatives from press agencies from around thirty countries, 3 international organizations and 82 media organizations.During the opening of the second edition, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev answered questions from journalists on various local, regional and international issues.Aliyev stressed that the South Caucasus region in general is undergoing a historical transformation and geopolitical historical changes are underway.President Ilham Aliyev added: 'Traditional alliances have weakened to a certain extent and new forms of cooperation have emerged. The complete restorat ion of our territorial integrity and sovereignty, in September last year, became an important event not only in the period between the first and second editions of the Forum, but in our contemporary history in general.On a question about Azerbaijani-Armenian relations, President Aliyev explained that negotiations on the text of the peace agreement continue, but today he is less optimistic about it, noting that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to meet him in Britain.President Ilham Aliyev revealed that the meeting was held at the initiative of the British government, adding that 'the Armenian side rejected this proposal, which surprised us a lot.''If the Armenian Prime Minister does not want to talk to me, what peace agreement can we talk about,' the Azerbaijani president asked.The Azerbaijani President spoke about his country's hosting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP29) next November, stressing that the conference is one of the most important events at the worldwide, and it is the number one conference in the world.'The event is being held for the first time in the post-Soviet region,' Mr. Aliyev noted, adding: 'We are not only concerned with regulatory issues, but we are also taking important initiatives, working closely together with developing countries and build bridges between the South and the North. Our advantage is that we chaired the Non-Aligned Movement for four years.Regarding relations with Russia, Aliyev stressed that there are no outstanding issues in bilateral relations with Russia, adding: 'In principle, even before the signing of the alliance declaration , we resolved all issues on the basis of mutual understanding, mutual respect, consideration of mutual interests and taking into account the centuries-old history of relations between our peoples.''The intensity of meetings at the level of the two presidents has increased recently, and there is a great need for this. We had meetings (with Russian Presid ent Vladimir Putin) in Moscow in April, and on the sidelines of the SCO conference earlier this month. There will certainly be other meetings before the end of the year on many subjects.Aliyev stressed that Azerbaijan began to closely address the issue of colonialism immediately after assuming the presidency of the Non-Aligned Movement, because many members of the Movement and millions of people were in the past victims of colonialism.'Some countries are still suffering from it. It is our duty, and we want to help these countries free themselves from the disgusting vestiges of the past.'The Azerbaijani president stressed that his country 'chose de facto and de jure independence, that is, an independent foreign policy, a self-sufficient economy, effective cooperation with its partners ready to cooperate with it and, well of course, relied on its internal potential,' adding that 'at the same time, we established close relations with the countries of the region, which allowed us to resolve the majority of economic problems.''We worked on ourselves, we focused on our people and our country and ignored developments, as well as statements made by the European Parliament or the Council of Europe.'The Azerbaijani President stressed that Azerbaijan has been a victim of manipulation of facts and false information for many years, noting that political and media outlets biased towards Armenians attack Azerbaijan, spread false information about them and present the events of Azerbaijan in an erroneous manner.He stressed that Europe today urgently needs natural gas produced by Azerbaijan, criticizing the contradiction of the positions of some European countries on traditional energy sources.'On the one hand, Europe is asking us to increase production and transport gas to Europe, because it desperately needs it. On the other hand, they do not finance projects in this regard.The Choucha Global Media Forum is expected to feature 4 roundtable discussions on the following themes: 'Impact assessment: defining the sco pe of disinformation', 'Policies and initiatives to create a society resilient to fake news', 'The impact of artificial intelligence on reality, media and disinformation: media awareness' and 'Climate movement and media'.Participants will hear interventions from leaders and representatives of civil society, media from different countries, government representatives, businesses, international organizations and media experts.The discussion sessions will also highlight the work accomplished in preparation for COP29 and reconstruction work in the Azerbaijani territories liberated from occupation.It is worth noting that the first edition of the Choucha World Media Forum was held from July 21 to 23 last year under the theme "Modern media in the era of the fourth industrial revolution."Source: Burkina Information Agency
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