Baku Proposes to Establish Secretariat of Association of OIC Journalists

Next year the founding conference of the Association of Journalists of the Islamic countries will be held, and its secretariat will be established in Baku, the Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan on Social and Political Issues Ali Hasanov told reporters.

This idea belongs to Azerbaijan, which has pledged to solve all the organizational issues, he added.

Referring to the value of such a structure, Hasanov said "the unity and solidarity of journalists of Islamic states is a very urgent task."

He did not explain the principles of the work of this entity. However, judging by Hasanov’s speech at the conference, there is a need to protect the interests of Muslim countries. In particular, it is necessary to resist attempts to equate Islam to terrorism.

* OIC was founded in 1969 at a conference of heads of Muslim countries in Rabat to ensure Islamic solidarity in social, economic and political spheres, the struggle against colonialism, and support for the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Its headquarters is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. OIC is the largest and most influential official governmental Muslim international organization. Currently it brings together 57 countries with a population of about 1.5 billion.

The governing bodies of OIC are the meeting of the kings, Heads of State and Government (Summit), the conference of Foreign Ministers, the General Secretariat and the subsidiary bodies. -02D-