NEWS

The Hungarian Embassy in Azerbaijan in cooperation with the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan has organized a concert of the Hungarian jazz group Contempo, Report informs.

The concert was timed to coincide with Universal Children’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, which are celebrated on November 20 and November 25, respectively.

Flutist and saxophonist Esther Pozar, cymbalist Csurkulya József, guitarist Tibor Eichinger performed various jazz compositions with an emphasis on Hungarian national motives.

The culmination of the evening was the jazz version of the Azerbaijani national song Sari Gelin, which the audience greeted with loud applause.

Mahsati Ganjavi is regarded as one of the first poetesses of the East. Her poetry is considered to be a valuable example of Azerbaijani and world literature. 

All biographers take basic information about the life of the great poetess' life from the 13th-century dastan (saga) "Mahsati and Amir Ahmad", the manuscripts of which are kept at the Azerbaijan Institute of Manuscripts.

Some latest researches suggest that  Mahsati Ganjavi was probably born in 1089 in the city of Ganja. 

After leaving Ganja for several years, Mahsati Ganjavi returned to her hometown and lived there until the end of her days.

The years spent in separation from her hometown left an imprint on many of her poems.

The poetess became famous in Azerbaijan's medieval literature as a master of rubai or a quatrain, a poem or a verse of a poem consisting of four lines. 

Many of her poems are filled with deep philosophical meaning. The love plot holds the main place in her creations. At the same time, she dedicated her poems to artisans, poets, singers.

Most of her poems were written during the time spent in the palace of Sultan Mahmud Seljuk and that of his uncle Sanjar Seljuk. 

She is said to gain the favor of Sanjar by the verse, which she extemporized when Sanjar found that a sudden fall of snow had covered the ground. 

Her poems have been translated into different languages. Most of her works have not survived. Some 257 rubais and around 30 poetic passages of Mahsati Ganjavi have been published until today. 

After so many years, the poetess is still highly respected for her poetry.

The street, a school, an academic institution, a museum, and some other places have been named after Mahsati Ganjavi. 

In 2013, the 900th anniversary of Mahsati Ganjavi was celebrated at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. The event was organized by the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to UNESCO.

In the same year,  an exhibition dedicated to the poetess opened at the National History Museum as part of International Museum Day.

Moreover, there is a museum in Ganja dedicated to her which is functioning in the building of the caravanserai, part of the Sheikh Bahauddin ensemble. 

The echo of the 4th ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival in Shaki.

The event will take place at the ASAN Service Center on November 23-25.

During three days, the festival will show some of the best local and foreign animated films for children and adults.

A master class for children "Make Your Own Santa Claus From Paper" will be organized as part of the event. 

"ANIMAFILM in Shaki" event is organized by PERI FILM LLC with the support of the Culture Ministry and Shaki City Executive Power.

Admission to "ANIMAFILM Shaki" echo events is free of charge. Pre-registration is required. The organizers will provide free transportation for people with disabilities to participate in the Festival.

Program schedule of "ANIMAFILM in Sheki":

23.11.2021

12:00-13:30 - Best Animated Films of the 4th ANIMAFILM. 7+

17:00-19:00 - Best Animated Films of the 4th ANIMAFILM. 13+

24.11.2021

12:00-13:30 - Azerbaijani Animated Films. 7+

16:00-19:00 - "Make Your Own Santa Claus From Paper " Workshop with Elchin Hami Akhundov. 7+

25.11.2021

12:00-13:30 - Best Animated Films of the 4th ANIMAFILM. 10+

17:00-19:00 - Winners of the 4th ANIMAFILM. 18+

ANIMAFILM International Animation Festival is the first international animation festival in Azerbaijan founded in 2018.

Every autumn the festival showcases hundreds of local and foreign animated films. The festival features professional meetings, exhibitions, master classes for children and professionals.

The main goal of the festival is to delight local and foreign audiences and professionals, as well as to stimulate the development of animation in Azerbaijan.

This year the festival's theme was dedicated to people with disabilities. 

Over 134 animated films from 40 countries were screened within the competition program. 

The festival featured master classes and workshops led by famous animators Masud Panachi, Nancy Danny-Phelps and Nick Phelps (Belgium), Olivier Catherine (France).

The jury included Masud Panachi, Irada Baghirzade (Azerbaijan), Olivier Catherine (France), Nancy Danny-Phelps (jury chairman) and Nick Phelps (Belgium), Mariam Kandelaki (Georgia), Piotr Kardas (Poland), Mehdi Khorushy and Maryam Rouhbakhsh (Iran).

International Nizami Ganjavi Forum will be held in Baku on November 24-26 as part of the Nizami Week.

The forum "Nizami Ganjavi Intercultural Bridge", will be attended by foreign guests.

The is organized by the Azerbaijan Culture Ministr  to celebrate the poet's 880th anniversary.

Nizami Ganjavi is considered one of the most prominent figures of medieval Azerbaijani philosophical poetry.

The poet  wrote lyrical poems, including gasidas, ghazals and rubais. He dedicated his whole life to lyrical poems, and different philosophical problems.

The works of Azerbaijani poet and thinker have been translated into many languages.

Rare manuscript copies of his works are kept and preserved in world-famous libraries, museums and literary foundations in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Baku, Tashkent, Tabriz, Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul, Delhi, London, Paris and others.

In Khamsa (Quintet), the poet revealed the living pages of history.

The attack of the Russians on Barda city, a fairy tale of the Russian Princess, the beautiful Shirin amazons, battles, described in various poems of Nizami - all this is historically and geographically related to medieval Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

Nizami Ganjavi passed away in 1209 in his native city of Ganja. A grandiose tomb was raised over his grave.

Baku Music Academy's (BMA) centenary has been celebrated in the Russian Information and Cultural Center.

The head of the Rossotrudnichestvo office in Baku Irek Zinnurov congratulated Baku Music Academy on its 100th anniversary and handed the BMA Vice-Rector for Academic Affairsof, Honored Teacher, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, professor Narmina Guliyeva a congratulatory address and a gift from the representative office.

The host and organizer for the evening, BMA senior lecturer, Doctor of Philosophy in Art Criticism Alena Inyakina spoke about the history of the institution, its graduates who played an important role in the academic musical art in Azerbaijan and shared the university's plans for the future.

At the evening, the guests enjoy concert that featured works of the Azerbaijani, Russian and world musical classics, which were performed by teachers, students and graduates, including Alena Inyakina, Lala Mukhtarova,Nargiz Kangarli, Dilara Karimova, Nurana Gurbanova, Vusal Aydamirov, Urfan Jafarov, Leyla Karimova, Nariman Fidan Mammadzade, Fidan Nagizade, Naila Khasiyeva, Jamal Abinzade, as well as a student of the 11th grade of the BMA Studio School Teymur Kazimov. 

Among the guests were representatives of the Culture Ministry, employees of the Russian Embassy in Azerbaijan, cultural and art workers, representatives of the creative intelligentsia and youth.

The Culture Minister Anar Karimov has met with the winner of the competition "Yukselish" (Rise).

During the meeting, Anar Karimov expressed confidence that the bilateral mentoring program will be useful for the winners of the competition.

The Minister stressed the importance of knowledge and experience gained by the competition winners. 

The competition winner Farrukh Aliyev said he always wanted to learn new skills and that the mentoring program would be effective for him.

Notably, the competition "Yukselish" (Rise) was established by the Decree of President Ilham Aliyev signed on July 26, 2019 to identify and support promising leaders with high intellectual level and management skills and to establish a human resources bank in the country.

According to the terms of the competition, the winner will have a one-year internship with the head of the competition within the framework of a mentoring program.

The competition "Yukselish" (Rise) is open for the Azerbaijani citizens with higher education, aged between 21 and 51 years with two years of management experience.

The competition consists of five stages - registration, online selection, face-to-face, semi-final and final. A total of 11,760 people registered for the competition. Around 9,775 of them were admitted to the competition.

Azerbaijan is always committed to the values and principles of UNESCO and will definitely contribute to the advancement of its mission worldwide, Minister for Culture Anar Karimov said on Twitter on the election of Azerbaijan as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO.

The Minister stressed that Azerbaijan deserves to be elected a member of the UNESCO Executive Board.

Elections to the UNESCO Executive Board for 2021-2025 were held yesterday as part of the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference. Azerbaijan has been nominated for one of the three vacancies for the Eastern European Group in the elections. Azerbaijan was elected a member of the Council with 143 votes in the highly competitive elections.

As part of the festival organized by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture on the occasion of "Year of Nizami Ganjavi", a flash-mob commemorating the 880th anniversary of the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Nizami Ganjavi has been held in the central square of Ganja.

AZƏRTAC`s regional correspondent reports that 8,800 people stood together in the square to form a portrait of Nizami Ganjavi.

The final stage of the pilot project "ICESCO Accelerator", launched jointly by Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS), Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture, the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for ICESCO, the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and NewSpace Innovation, has been held.

The event, held at Baku Higher Oil School brought together representatives of the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport; the Ministry of Culture; JSCB "Kapitalbank"; the founder and CEO of the Georgian company Creative Caucasus, Gela Suli; members of the teams participating in the final stage and the organizers of the event.

In his opening remarks, Head of the International Projects and Innovations Sector of the Ministry of Culture Ramil Abbakirov said that under the project, successful cooperation has been established and the project is being implemented at a high level. Wishing the project participants success in their further endeavors, the representative of the Ministry said that they are always ready to cooperate.

The founder of NewSpace Innovation, Leyla Taghizade, spoke of the progress of the project and the work done. She said that the project, implemented in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, covers the spheres of agriculture, digital media, financial technology, entertainment and games, tourism, and food technology. Leyla Taghizade noted that members of 16 teams are taking part in the final stage of the project.

At the event, a letter from ICESCO's Science and Technology Advisor Muhammad Sharif to the project participants was read out.

Then, panel discussions on the topic "The Future of the Creative Economy" were held, during which the conditions created for startups, financing of the startup ecosystem, and the prospects for the development of this area were discussed.

At the end of the event, members of the teams participating in the final stage made presentations. The jury evaluated their presentations and awarded them.

The teams that took the top 3 places gained the right to participate in the big final to be held in Morocco. Finalist teams will compete for prizes by presenting their startup ideas to investors and entrepreneurs.

Recall that the opening and the first stage of the project "ICESCO Accelerator", aimed at developing the spheres of dynamic creativity technologies and culture through the implementation of accelerator programs in ICESCO member countries, took place on September 11 at Baku Higher Oil School.

At the first stage of the project, which took place in the form of a two-day camp, teams were trained on topics such as Building a Business, Business Models, Customer Research. At the second stage of the project, intensive mentoring sessions were held for six weeks, during which the teams finalized their ideas, prepared proposals and prototypes.

The gingerbread exhibition "Karabakh – Winter Wonderland", marking the anniversary of Azerbaijan’s glorious victory in the Patriotic war, has officially opened at Port Baku Mall.

Representatives of ministries and companies, bloggers, NARGIS’ partners and friends, adults and children attended the opening ceremony. The festive ambience was even more enhanced when the guests were treated with gingerbread cookies, as tasty as the installation itself.

“Karabakh – Winter Wonderland” installation has been created in the shape of kharibulbul, a flower symbolizing Azerbaijan’s brilliant victory in the Patriotic War. Renowned Azerbaijani architects, engineers and talented pastry chefs have erected the miniature monuments of Azerbaijani culture, from the Shusha fortress walls through to the Aghdam mosque and Khudafarin bridges, as well as the new constructions in Karabakh such as Fuzuli Airport, and Baku's landmarks.

The exhibit information is on display together with QR-codes, which you may scan to get an overview of the monuments’ history and cultural significance. The information is provided in three languages on the website of NARGIS magazine.

The project strives to present the abundant culture of the Karabakh region to dwellers and guests of Baku, as well as bring the spirit of the upcoming New Year to children and adults alike. It has been inspired and led by Editor-in-Chief of NARGIS magazine Ulviyya Mahmudova.

It took the chefs 80 kg of flour, 15 kg of oil, 330 eggs, 20 kg of chocolate, 200 kg of marzipan, 250 kg of icing, 15 kg of honey, 3 kg of ginger powder, and a lot of candies to complete the installation. Over 40 marzipan figurines were made by hand; 30 gingerbread houses were installed, as well as over 100 gingerbread trees and 5 large Christmas trees. Lights are flickering inside the houses, a Ferris Wheel is spinning; over a hundred gingerbread men are roaming the streets, covered by sugar dust; they are dancing Yalli on a miniature Jidir Duzu, weaving priceless Karabakh carpets, and playing national musical instruments. You can photograph them freely and share the pictures across social media with the hashtag #nargisgingerbreadcity.

The exhibition will run until 13 January 2022. Entrance is free.