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On the 17th of June, the presentation ceremony of the digital library of Kazakh literature in the Azerbaijani language, a joint project of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Azerbaijan and the National Library, was held at the National Library.

The event was opened and welcomed by the Director of the National Library, Professor Karim Tairov. He stated that, this year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Our countries cooperate in many fields - political, economic, as well as cultural. The National Library of Azerbaijan also expands cooperation relations with the libraries of Kazakhstan. The director emphasized that both in the National Library of Azerbaijan and in the National Academic Library of Kazakhstan have permanent corners with books covering the history, culture, and literature of both countries. K. Tahirov said that Mr. Serjan Abdykarimov, the ambassador of Kazakhstan to the Republic of Azerbaijan, regularly helps to provide new literature to the permanent corner of Kazakh literature created in the National Library of Azerbaijan. K. Tahirov noted that in order to further expand relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan in the field of culture, we decided to create a digital library containing the works of Kazakh writers and poets in the Azerbaijani language. On the basis of this project, an electronic version of the works of numerous Kazakh authors was created in the Azerbaijani language during the pandemic, and today we are presenting that project. At the end of his speech, the director expressed his gratitude to the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Azerbaijan, led by Ambassador Serjan Abdikarimova, and noted that I believe that researchers of Kazakh literature, as well as all our readers, will benefit from the presented electronic database.

The Ambassador of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan, Mr. Serzhan Abdikarimov, made a speech and first of all expressed gratitude to the director of the National Library for organizing the event, as well as to all the guests for their participation. The Ambassador said that the relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have a long history. Over the past 30 years, relations between our peoples have strengthened and developed. He said that in a number of universities and educational institutions of Kazakhstan there are corners about Azerbaijan. The ambassador noted that there is also a corner of Kazakh literature in the National Library of Azerbaijan, one of the streets of Baku is named after the genius Kazakh poet Abay Kunanbayev, and the opening of the Kazakh language, history and culture center named after Abay at BSU can be an example of the strengthening of these relations. Then the Ambassador emphasized that during the 30-year cooperation between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, a sufficiently rich book collection of Kazakh authors was collected, and their works were translated into the Azerbaijani language. 50 books are displayed in the digital library presented today, among them are the works of A. Kunanbayev, M. Auezov and others.  At the end of his speech, Mr. Ambassador once again thanked Karim Tahirov for his contributions to this project and presented him the electronic version of the digital library of Kazakh literature in Azerbaijani language. President of the International Turkish Culture and Heritage Foundation Gunay Efendiyeva said that this year is a significant year for the member states of the International Turkish Culture and Heritage Foundation. It is very proud to present such a project on the eve of the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. G. Efendiyeva noted that our relations have developed at different levels during the past 30 years. She emphasized that the presented digital library will give all readers the opportunity to get acquainted with Kazakh literature in the Azerbaijani language and will bring our peoples closer together.

The first secretary of Azerbaijan Writers' Union, People's writer Chingiz Abdullayev made a speech and said that I am very glad to participate in the presentation of such an event. He also spoke about the importance of reading the literature of different nations in different languages for our youth.

He said I believe that the number of books included in the project will soon increase and such format projects will be continued with other Turkish peoples.

In the continuation of the event, professor of Baku Slavic University, Honored teacher Nizami Mammadov - Tagısoy;Chairman of the Mahmud Kashgari International Foundation, writer, poet Elkhan Zal Karakhanli; Ramiz Asgarov, Head of the Turkology Department of BSU; BSU Turkology Department professor Firuza Aghayeva and others spoke.

At the end, a virtual exhibition dedicated to the great poet and thinker of the Kazakh people, Abay Kunanbayev, prepared by the National Library, was also presented to the participants.