― 3 июня 2023 г.

Celebration of Anar's 85th Birthday

The 85th anniversary of the birthday of the famous Azerbaijani author Anar Rzayev was celebrated in an event organized in cooperation of TURKSOY with  the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Ankara, the Authors' Union of Azerbaijan (AYB) and the Turkish Literature Foundation (TEV).

The event hosted by TURKSOY Secretary General Sultan Raev gathered the President of the Authors' Union of Azerbaijan Anar Rzayev, the Undersecretary of the Embassy of Azerbaijan Eldar Aliyev and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Literature Foundation (TEV) Serhat Kabaklı as well as many guests and amateurs of  literature.

Delivering an opening speech at the meeting, TURKSOY Secretary General Sultan Raev expressed his pleasure to be together on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the birth of Anar, the President of the Authors' Union of Azerbaijan who is also  an important figure of contemporary Turkic literature.

Stating that Turkic language owes its development throughout centuries up to its current status to the fact that our peoples have a rich oral and written literature tradition  and that  poets, authors and literary figures are actually those who transmit this precious heritage from one generation to the next, Mr Raev said: "I would not be mistaken if I said that today a light, a great wordsmith, a man of wise ideas and a noble person has come to TURKSOY! The person  I am talking about is  Anar!

Anar is, first of all, a person of special importance, special value and undoubtedly a person of special talent! Every nation has people who have become the soul and symbol of the nation. I recognised Anar as such a noble person.

It is no coincidence that Anar is being refered to as the face of the nation, the honour of the nation and the spiritual leader of the nation. Indeed,  his life and destiny, his outlook on life, his stance and patriotism stand as a testimony of this.

Being an author and  patriot is what characterizes the  nature and essence of  Anar  as a scholar! His novels and short stories invite mankind to cleanliness, to spiritual cleansing and to return to one's inner essence. Whatever circumstances we live in, Anar  encourages us to always preserve the sacredness and honourable nature of  the "Human kind"!

I know this dignity and will as the main characteristic of Anar."

Speaking at the meeting, Serhat Kabaklı, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TEV, emphasised that since its estblishment, the Foundation has always looked at the Turkic World with the eyes of the heart and has always considered Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan as homeland, hence also embracing the values of th countries as its own. He stated that this event, which was organised on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of Anar's birth, was a way of protecting the important values of our common culture.

The Undersecretary of the Embassy of Azerbaijan Eldar Aliyev stated that many generations who grew up with Anar's stories are together today at the event organised on the occasion of Anar's 85th birthday and mentioned the importance of Anar Rzayev in Azerbaijani literature.

The opening speeches were followed by a presentation and ribbon-cutting ceremony introducing the books  "Anar: A Pioneer of Azerbaijani Literature" and "Anar: An Author  at the Crossroads of Two Centuries".

In the second part of the meeting, Vice President of the Union of Authors of Azerbaijan Reşad Majid, the authors Imdat Avşar, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pervin Nuraliyeva and Günel Anarkızı presented their papers on Anar, his life and the importance of  his work in Azerbaijani literature and the Turkic world

During the meeting, TURKSOY Secretary General Sultan Raev presented the 30th anniversary medal of TURKSOY to the Anar on the occasion of his 85th birthday.

In the artistic part of the event, the ensemble featuring Aynaz Rahimzade, Elchin Hetemli (Tar) and Aresh Nazari (Naghara) took the scene to perform famous Azerbaijani songs as well as songs composed to Anar's poems he wrote about his mother Nigar Refibeyli and father Rasul Rıza.

The famous Azerbaijani author Anar who took the floor at the end of the event expressed his happiness and gratitude as to the  event organized by TURKSOY to celebrate his 85th birthday  saying:

"Being here in TURKSOY headquarters  is of great importance for me, TURKSOY is very close to me, it is my birthplace and my beloved. It is a pleasure for me to have a small contribution to the establishment of TURKSOY. In one of my speeches I delivered before the establishment of the organization, I had emphasised that there should be an organization that operates like UNESCO among  Turkic States and works to promote the culture and art of Turkic peoples. After a while, when TURKSOY was established, its first President was Polat Bülbüloğlu, a famous Azerbaijani artist, who is also a very close friend of mine, the second Secretary General was the violinist from Kazakhstan  Dusen Kasseinov, who is also a very close friend of mine, and finally my close friend from Kyrgyzstan the People's Author of  Kyrgyzstan Sultan Raev who took over the function of  TURKSOY Secretary General. I am not against musicians, but as I am an author myself, I am very pleased that TURKSOY is now working under the leadership of an author."

Anar, who also touched upon his heart connection with Kyrgyzstan, emphasized that his relatives on his mother's side had to leave Azerbaijan during the Soviet regime under Stalin's oppression and that some of them  voluntarily came to live in Turkey while  some of them were exiled to Kyrgyzstan. Anar also stated that he has a special affinity with Kyrgyzstan and the Kyrgyz people and that many of his friends are famous authors such as  Chingis Aitmatov and Sultan Raev, who is currently the Secretary General of TURKSOY.  Concerning his friendship ties with  Chingis Aitmatov, Anar said: "When we used to give books to each other as a gift, Aitmatov used to sign the book writing: "To my younger brother Anar" and I used to sign the book writing: "To my older brother Chingiz"."

Anar concluded his speech by expressing his gratitude to  those who contributed to the organization of the event.

The event ended with a group photograph  taken in memory of the day.