ABOUT THE AZERI GENOCIDE

Numerous acts of genocide against Azerbaijanis, which for many years did not receive its deserved political and legal assessment, is one of the secret pages of our history.

After the Republic of Azerbaijan regained its independence, it has become possible to renew the objective picture of the past history of our nation. The truth which for many years was kept back, is getting disclosed and misinterpreted events are getting their real value.

The Gulustan and Turkmenchay agreements signed in 1813 and 1828 provided the legal ground for the partition of the nation of Azerbaijan and division of its historical lands. The occupation of the lands continued the national tragedy of Azerbaijan people. Within a short time, gross settlement of Armenians in the territories of Azerbaijan has begun. The occupation of Azerbaijani territories became an integral part of the genocide.

Armenians moved to Yerevan, Nakhchivan and Karabakh khanates have achieved to establish their administrative territorial unit of Armenian region despite their minority as compared to Azerbaijanis residing in the same area. This artificial division provided political reasons for the removal and annihilation of Azerbaijanis in their native lands. This was followed by propaganda of the establishment of the Great Armenia. In order to ensure the exculpation of the idea to establish this fictitious state in the territory of Azerbaijan, a wide-scale programme, aimed at the falsification of the national history of Armenians, was started. The distortion of the history of Azerbaijan and the whole Caucasus, formed an integral part of this programme.

The Mystery of the Maiden Tower

The Maiden Tower is a Baku landmark, a much loved symbol of the city and of Azerbaijan. It looms dark and enigmatic, looking out to sea from the southern edge of Baku´s old, walled city, the Icheri Sheher. The origins of the tower are shrouded in mystery - no-one knows for certain when it was built or what it was built for or even how it acquired its name Maiden Tower (Qiz qalasi). No written sources survive that record its construction or original function.

Baku historian Sara Ashurbayli calculated that the tower must have been built in the 4th to 6th centuries AD. This was because of the tower’s unusual construction, the difference between the stone used in the tower and the stone of the medieval city surrounding it and the various legends about the Maiden Tower.

Another group of researchers think that the tower was built in the 11th century. The reason is the inscription 14 metres high on the south wall of the tower which reads Qubbeye Masud ibn Davud in old Arabic script^[1]. Epigraphist Mashadikhanim Nemat studied the inscription and explained the word qübbə as qüllə or tower, so Masud ibn Davud would have been the tower’s architect. The architect of the 14th century Mardakan Tower, Abdulmajid ibn Masud, is thought to be his descendant^[2].

The Many Forms of Heroism

It was a beautiful house – 2 storeys – with grape vines that climbed over the balconies.... Address? We didn’t have an address; everybody knew our house near the river. There was a big garden with apple, pear and plum trees, and potatoes.... my father loved boiled potatoes, and rice soup.... One of the apple trees was very small; every year it had just 3 apples, and we were three children. The apples smelled of honeydew melons and one day I took a bite out of one of them, but I left it on the tree; my father asked, ‘Why didn’t you pick it?’

Yasemen Hasanova’s eyes are bright with the memories of her childhood home. She tells of the wonderful views from the upstairs window, of gazing out at the town up on the heights in the distance – that town’s lights against the night sky were a thing of wonder to a child. They often went up there in her father’s yellow Moskvich to take long walks. It was difficult to walk anywhere in our town. My father had so many friends and was very sociable; he loved to talk. Whenever we had to go somewhere my mother asked him not to stop and talk, or we would never get there.

Summer in Azerbaijan

Caspian Sea shore

As summer arrives in Azerbaijan, and the temperature in the capital city Baku soars, then the lure of the surrounding countryside increases exponentially. Even the smartest city folk jump into a car or bus at a moment´s notice, and head for the country´s beaches or forested mountains.

With the improving road system, travelling is fast becoming quick and comfortable; favourite destinations can be reached very easily indeed. Choose between a day trip or a longer stay, go wild camping in luxuriant meadows, or get pampered in 5 star world class luxury hotels, the choice is yours depending on just how close you want to be to nature.Because I like to travel in Azerbaijan, and have done for several years, Azerbaijani people often ask me where my favourite place is in their country. Maybe they secretly hope it will be the village home of a favourite grandparent! Faced with such a tremendous choice of destinations, often special to me for very different reasons, I try to visit each in turn, and with each visit try to explore just a little further than before. Travelling here always reveals special moments and, without exception, I feel totally privileged to be a guest in this most amazing country. A wonderful feeling results, both energising and uplifting. So please, take yourself out of Baku, and chill… You will return so refreshed that you can tackle the heat head-on.

The First Eastern Opera "Leyli and Majnun"

Uzeyir Hajibeyov and his wife Maleka in 1926

Leyli and Majnun was first performed on 12 January 1908 (25 January in the modern calendar). Ninety-five years later the opera remains a popular fixture in the repertoire of the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Uzeyir Hajibayov made Azerbaijani opera history when he composed Leyli and Majnun. The opera is based on Azerbaijani mugam and folklore, which gives it originality and endears it to audiences.

Birth of an Opera

Shusha, 1898: a 13-year-old boy watches a dramatization of the story of Majnun at Leyli’s Tombstone. He is astonished at the performance of the amateur actors. That boy was Uzeyir Hajibayov. Remembering the occasion, the great composer wrote: "That performance affected me so much that when I came to Baku years later, I decided to write something like that." So, Leyli and Majnun was born in the heart of 13-year-old Uzeyir in 1898.

The opera’s first director was Huseyn Arablinski and its first conductor was Abdurahimbey Hagverdiyev, a famous Azerbaijani writer. All the parts were played by men, as at that time women were not allowed to perform on stage.

STONE TALE OF BAKU

They say even the walls help make a home… They are familiar and strong supports. They promise cosiness and safety. This can be said of both house and whole city walls.

300 years ago Baku was surrounded by a double set of walls on the landside, and a single wall separated it from the sea. Before joining the Russian empire, the city was practically fully enclosed within its fortified walls and surrounded by a deep moat. But Baku has “escaped” from the fortress, expanding beyond it and continues to grow. And the old part of the city, Icheri Sheher (Inner City) has remained a historic reserve, where people come to enjoy the silence, the gorgeous primeval architecture and to find out more about the roots. There are monuments to antiquity everywhere in Icheri Sheher- the mosques, baths and the simple houses. But even the walls that embrace the old city deserve special attention.

Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich

Born on 27 March 1927 in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mstislav Rostropovich began musical studies in early childhood with his parents. His mother was an accomplished pianist, and his father a distinguished cellist who had studied with Pablo Casals. At the age of sixteen he entered the Moscow Conservatory where he studied composition with Prokofiev and Shostakovich. In 1945 he came to prominence overnight as a cellist when he won the gold medal in the first ever Soviet Union competition for young musicians. Thereafter, despite his continued battle with the communist authorities, he became one of the central figures of the music life there, for twenty five years inspiring Soviet cellists, composers and audiences alike.

Due to international recording contracts and foreign tours, Mstislav Rostropovich also came to the attention of the West. He recorded nearly the entire cello literature during this time and attracted an unprecedented large quantity of new repertoire for the instrument through his personal contact to composers such as Benjamin Britten, who wrote his Cello Symphony, his Sonata for Cello and Piano and the three Suites for Solo Cello especially with Rostropovich in mind. Other composers who have written for Rostropovich include Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Boulez, Berio, Messiaen, Schnittke, Bernstein, Dutilleux and Lutoslawski.