One of largest socio-political organizations to be founded in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Dec. 16/ Trend , J. Babayeva/ Interview of Jeyhun Osmanli, co-founder of Irali all-republic youth movement, with Trend .

Question: Media reports indicate various reasons for closure of Irali all-republic youth movement. One of the reasons reported by media is economic difficulties. Irali is also reported to turn into a political party. Are these reports true?

Answer: In fact, dissolution of Irali movement provoked resonance that we expected. Irali movement was dissolved as was planned three years ago when it was established. Some mass media outlets describe the dissolution of Irali movement as a shut down. Irali was not shut down, but dissolved. Second, Irali was dissolved not because of economic difficulties, but at the decision of co-founders. We think we achieved our goals in a format of a movement. We could achieve updating youth policy, growing up a new generation of young politicians and forming new young elite and new kind of youth organization. Irali movement laid foundation of new kind of youth organization. Dozens of similar networks were set up later and Irali fulfilled its mission successfully. I think we reached peak of our activities. When Irali was founded, we planned to cover 6,000 young people. But there was a high demand for Irali thanks to productive activities and establishing relevant public contacts. More people expressed their wish to join Irali than we expected. There was a need to set up representatives offices of Irali in the regions. We understood that is not possible with the current model of movement. We decided to complete first stage of our development, to give up the model of movement and to seek new model to fulfill our next goals. We are looking for this kind of model at the moment.

Question: Are discussions underway to found a new organization on the basis of Irali? Will focus of activities of new organization differ from that of Irali?

Answer: Irali's previous and new format aims at shaping new character of Azerbaijani citizen and forming human capital which is crucial for the future of the country. Human capital has always been considered a vital resource. I think the more developed is the character of Azerbaijani youth and citizen, Azerbaijan's science and society, and the more it possesses independent thinking, the more developed society will be.

Establishment of new format on the basis of Irali is a social request. There are demands for Irali in three categories: First, Azerbaijan's youth want to be largely involved in Irali. We should work out mechanism of individual development. We need to create an organization which will cover regions, cities, higher schools and secondary schools. Second, there some organization in Azerbaijan who wanted to join Irali. They do not want Irali's individual development, but an organization which combines various structures. Coordinating mechanism should be created in a new structure of Irali. Third, Irali also includes youth who have studied in Europe and America. They want to enlarge Irali by establishing representative offices abroad.  New mechanism will probably include establishment of international representative offices. Thus we have concluded that we are going to establish one of the largest socio-political organizations of Azerbaijan. We will achieve it as soon as possible. Our chief goal will be forming human capital well-aware of his/her national values and keeping up pace with global development. We will oppose people, organizations and parties who try to impose norms irrelevant to our values and mentality. We oppose use of young people as a puppet by some political forces. Every young person should be able to think independently.