Seville – In front of more than a thousand personalities gathered on Friday at the Maenstraza Grand Theatre in Seville, president of the Andalusian government, Juan Manuel Moreno, awarded HM the King’s Advisor Andre Azoulay the Gold Medal of Andalusia for his “exemplary commitment to solidarity and harmony and for his pioneering approach at the head of the Foundation of Three Cultures, which for more than 20 years associates Morocco, Spain, and Andalusia to tell the world the art of living together”.
Andalusia’s most prestigious distinction, this medal has taken on a particularly solemn character this year as part of the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Declaration of Andalusian autonomy.
The Andalusian president stressed that his government has chosen to “praise and distinguish the career of Andre Azoulay, who has worked for years for understanding and mutual respect between Morocco, Andalusia, and Spain”.
Before receiving his medal from president Moreno, Azoulay recalled “the historic and visionary decision of Morocco which, in the mid-1990s, proposed to Spain and Andalusia to come together to create the Foundation of the Three Cultures and to make it the institution of reference, the space of resilience and resistance in the face of the dangers of the cultural and social fracture that was already looming all around us”.
“History has proved Morocco right and it is to my King and my country that I dedicate today, from Seville, the medal awarded to me,” he added.
Azoulay underlined that at a time and in a space where the community of nations is still searching for landmarks, Morocco has put the richness and depth of its cultural and spiritual diversity at the heart of the modernity of its society, thus giving full legitimacy and raison d’être to the Foundation of the Three Cultures and its influence in the Euro-Mediterranean area and in the world.
( Agence Marocaine de Presse)
