The Great Silk Way International Youth Congress, which was held on 27-28 of June 2012 in Baku, adopted the Baku Youth Declaration and established a unique youth organization representing different cultures, traditions, state and public formations - Great Silk Way International Youth Union – by bringing together young representatives from 28 countries of Asia, Africa and Europe. The representatives of government institutions and youth organizations from Albania, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Greece, Georgia, Hungary, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kuwait, Malta, Moldova, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan were the participants of the Congress. During the Congress, the President of the “Great Silk Way” IYU, 4 Vice-presidents 7 Bureau Members and the Control Supervising Commission were elected among the candidates voluntarily nominated by participants. The Union was officially registered on 16th of August 2012 in Baku, in Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
“Great Silk Way” IYU is an international non-commercial organization established to coordinate the activities of youth organizations and to represent and protect their common interests. The main aim and the scope of activities of the organization is promoting the intercultural and interreligious dialogue, create mutually beneficial collaboration, as well as to spread the idea of usage of the potential of youth for sustainable development among the Silk Road countries.
The “Black Sea Young Diplomats School” was the first international project implemented by the “Great Silk Way” IYU. One week training course involved students from Black Sea countries and took place in Caqvi, Georgia on September 22-30, 2012. Another successfully implemented project was the Poetesses Forum held in Baku, Azerbaijan on 26-29 April 2013, with the participation of poetesses from 20 countries, who had a unique chance to share her creations with other poetess living throughout the Silk Road geography on a shared platform. One of the running projects is the “Young Journalists Contest” where journalists from 28 member-countries are expected to present articles, essays on subjects: “The role of the country in the Silk Road”, “The cultural dialogue between the countries that belong to historical Silk Road” and “Modern transformation of Silk Road cities”. The articles of the first three winners will be provided with high media coverage in all member-countries.
