Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The grandiose presentation of the international “Voice of Karabakh” project was held at the Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku on December 2.

The co-organizers of the event were the Centre for Information and Communication Technologies “Virtual Karabakh”, Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Azerbaijani Youth and Sport Ministry.

“Voice of Karabakh”, the musical album including classic compositions and jazz improvisations by Azerbaijani honored artist Rain Sultanov, was presented during the event.

The album’s compositions are devoted to the Azerbaijani cities and regions such as Khojavend, Khojali, Zangilan, Shusha, Khankendi, Kelbajar, Fuzuli, Agdam, Lachin, Jabrail nad Gubadli occupied by Armenia.

Addressing the event, Head and Project Coordinator at “Virtual Karabakh” Nureddin Mehtiyev spoke about the main goal of the project. He said the goal is preserving, development and promotion of the national culture. It also aims to convey via music the realities about Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict to the world.

Mehtiyev and Sultanov thanked the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Youth and Spot Ministry for organizing such an important project.

The album also included a catalogue, released in Azerbaijani, English, Russian and Spanish languages. It includes the thoughts of famous British journalists Yan Peartin about Azerbaijani history and culture. “Karabakh’s culture is bright and stunning. People can convey their voices to the world through this culture,” he said.

Peartin also got acquainted with the witnesses of Khojali tragedy. “I talked with survivors of Khojali. Particularly, with Yasemen Huseynova, whose father Tofig Huseynov died during this terrible tragedy. Yasemen is now teaching children hailing from Khojali,” he noted.

The journalist said that Yasemen teaches the beauty of her native land, Khojali.

It was a big honor for a foreigner to write about the history and culture of such amazing country, as Azerbaijan in the catalogue, said the journalist. “I have visited many parts of Azerbaijan, but in Karabakh I was only in the memory of the people who lived there. Once, I will definitely visit those lands freed from the occupation to understand from where this wonderful inspiration starts,” the journalist emphasized.

Many Azerbaijani art figures such as Alim Gasimov, Yasef Eyvazov and Shain Novrasli and foreign musicians from Sweden, Japan and Georgia, including Linnea Olsson, Peter Nilsson, Yashuto Mori and Irakli Koiava joined the project.

During the event, the compositions from the album were performed by the participants, which were warmly applauded by the audience.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by U.S., Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.

The UN Security Council has passed four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.