Galib Mammad introduces Tomris Azeri in front of Gazakh Teachers' Seminary
Dear friends, I greet each and every one of you from America. I apologize for not being able to be with you in person.
Growing up in America, we have always been proud to be the bearers of Azerbaijan's heritage. Even though we were not born there and never lived there, we grew up with a sense of belonging to Azerbaijan. This deep attachment and the sense of belonging to our homeland made us proud and complemented our spirituality.
Our organization ASA, was founded in 1957 in the United States. Our founding fathers wanted to keep Azerbaijan alive and to teach their children and grandchildren who were growing up here, in America, to know Azerbaijan, to love and be dedicated to the homeland. They sincerely believed that one day Azerbaijan will regain their independence and they wanted to prepare us for it. I grew up in this spirit. Our organization has a proud, strong constructive history.
This year, In Azerbaijan, we wanted to contribute in education in honor of our founding fathers, to build or repair a school for future generations. We heard about the first mother-tongue school opened by the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 under the name of Gazakh Teachers' Seminary, headed by Firudin Bey Kocherli, a prominent Azerbaijani writer, philologist and educated such prominent figures as Samad Vurgun, a poet, academician and many, many more...This historic Seminary played an exceptional role in the enlightenment of the Azerbaijani people, this project is superior and more magnificent than we can ever imagine. We knew this was the purpose we wanted to contribute to.
President of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E. Ilham Aliyev also signed an executive order for the restoration of this historical Seminary. We couldn't be more honored to have the opportunity to support in the restoration of this historic seminary in accordance with the President's order.
By participating in the restoration of such an educational institution, we can rejoice the souls of our first republic, the founders of this school, as well as the founders of the Azerbaijan Society of America. Future generations of Azerbaijani Americans will always be proud we were involved with the restoration of this historic school.
We are grateful to Honorable Hafiz Pashayev, the first ambassador of independent Azerbaijan to the United States and rector of ADA University, for supporting us in this work. We learned a lot from Him, including new reasons to love Azerbaijan.
We are also proud of the opportunity to participate in this project under his leadership, because this work will serve to educate future generations for Azerbaijan in the spirit of our ancestors, who created this school 103 years ago, and the bright future of Azerbaijan as a whole.
I convey my best wishes to you, and I am confident that this project will be completed successfully and we will meet face to face in the future at the newly restored school in Gazakh!
Tomris Azeri, President of ASA
