A few days ago, another academic conference was held within the framework of the "Kitabistan Talks" project.
This time the guests of "Kitabistan Talks" were Wolf Linder, member of the Swiss National Science Foundation and the Swiss Council of Sciences, professor of political sciences, and Sean Mueller, professor of the University of Bern and University of Lausanne, head of the "Eccellenza" project of the University of Lausanne. The book "Swiss Democracy" co-authored by professors Wolf Linder and Sean Muelller was also presented at the conference.
It should be noted that the book "Swiss Democracy" was translated into Azerbaijani and published by Kitabistan.
Shahriyar Majidzade, founder of Kitabistan gave an opening speech at the conference on "Education in Switzerland and Swiss neutrality". He greeted the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation to the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mrs. Muriel Peneveyre, representatives of the diplomatic corps and other participants, and thanked professors Wolf Linder and Sean Mueller for coming to Azerbaijan and giving a lecture at the conference. He gave information about the book "Swiss Democracy" and stated that the purpose of the newly published book and the conference is to present positive examples of the world in Azerbaijan:
"Kitabistan has always presented positive examples of the world in our country. I think one of the best examples in the world is Switzerland. That's why we translated and published the book "Swiss Democracy" into Azerbaijani.
Later, Mrs. Muriel Peneveyre, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Swiss Confederation to Azerbaijan, gave a speech. During her speech, she thanked Kitabisan and informed the audience about the unique features of Switzerland:
"The political system of Switzerland is quite unique. Idiosyncratic features of Switzerland have a long history. This year we celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Swiss Constitution, which was established in 1848. Before that date, Switzerland was a confederation of states. In 1848, the building blocks of the current constitution were formed."
After the ambassador's speech, a special video prepared by Kitabistan for this Talk event was screened. Later, professors Wolf Linder and Sean Mueller were invited to the stage. Remarking that they are happy to be in Azerbaijan, professors thanked Kitabistan for the organization of the conference and the publication of the book "Swiss Democracy" in Azerbaijani. They gave a lecture mainly on three topics: Swiss democracy, Swiss education and Swiss neutrality. Later on W.Linder and S.Mueller gave detailed information about each of these topics and they answered the questions from the audience.
Talking about the history of Swiss democracy, Sean Mueller stated that there had been many conflicts, wars, and civil wars in Switzerland until modern times:
"The last time such a war had happened was in 1848. Since then, people have been living in peace, there is stability in the country, and they are eating chocolate and watching the snow falling on the mountains. The population lives a prosperous life. And this is one of the main indicators of stability.
Our government has 7 presidents. That's where uniqueness lies. Because our founding fathers could not reach an agreement and they created a unique government system so that everyone from the regions speaking different languages could enter this council.
Later, the professors talked about the education system in Switzerland and the country's neutrality. Wolf Linder remarked that Switzerland has not achieved neutrality easily. The country has come a long way for this.
At the end of the conference, Prof. Wolf Linder and Prof. Sean Muller was named Honorary Kitabistan Citizen for their contribution to science. It should be noted that the title of Honorary Kitabistan Citizen is given to people whose activities are based on human values and who contribute to intercultural dialogue, enlightenment and world science.
After the conference, authors W. Linder and S. Mueller signed their book "Swiss Democracy" for the readers.
It should be noted that "Education in Switzerland and Swiss neutrality" was the second academic conference of the "Kitabistan Talks" project. According to information from Kitabistan, these academic conferences will be held regularly. The main goal here is to present positive examples of the world in Azerbaijan.