The Culture Ministry has awarded the winners of patriotic literary contest. The awarding ceremony took place at the International Mugham Center.

A minute of silence was observed to pay tribute to the martyrs of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War who sacrificed their lives for Azerbaijan's territorial integrity.

In his speech, the Culture Minister Anar Karimov stressed that the restoration and construction works are currently underway on the territories liberated from Armenian occupation.

The Culture Ministry is carrying out work on returning Azerbaijani culture to these lands.

Anar Karimov praised the courage of the Azerbaijani Army who liberated Azerbaijani lands after almost 30 years of Armenian occupation.

In their speeches, members of the competition commission, Honored Art worker, secretary of the Azerbaijan Writers' Union Rashad Majid and head of the Kids Literature Department at the Institute of Literature Elnara Akimova stressed the importance of the literary project.

Nearly 321 works have been sent to the competition. Only 53 of them have not accepted as they did not meet the contest rules.

Around 268 literary works admitted to the competition, including  67 essays, 75 stories and 126 poems.

The competition was held in three categories for professional writers, amateur authors and the 10-15 years old kids.

The competition brought together writers from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Russia and Iran. All submitted works and information about their authors were unknown for jury members. 

The works submitted for the contest were evaluated from a thematic, artistic and professional point of view.

Ramil Ahmad, Mina Rashid, Jalil Javanshir were awarded for the best essays in the category "Professionals"  The stories written by Farhad Karimli, Sevinj Nurugizi, Tavakgul Boysunar were also named best as part of the contest. 

Muzaffar Muzaffarli, Elgiz Abbasov and Fidan Gozyalova were awarded for the best essays in the category "Amateur". Tural Azimzade, Gulmira Mammadova and Shabnam Turbanzadeh were awarded for the best stories, while the poems by Yusif Arabsoy, Mulain Gummatova and Gabil Aliyev were named best at the literary contest.

The 10-15 years old project participants were awarded as well, including  Dilbar Rafi Alpaslan Jahangir,  Ismail Gululu, Zahra Rzayeva (essay), Abdullah Huseynli, Momunakhatun Mammadova, Aysu Alisoy, Omar Mammadzadeh, Sema Guliyeva (story), Ayan Elyarli,Nazrin Jalilova,Sadig Gazanfarli, Eva Farajova, Sevidnik Aliyeva (poetry).