Presentation of book ‘It's Time to Gather the Stones’ about Western Azerbaijan heritage held in Baku

Azerbaijan’s Center for Analysis of International Relations (AIR Center) hosted a scientific-practical event titled "Stones Speak in Silence: Preservation of Azerbaijan's Heritage" and the presentation of the fundamental publication "It's Time to Gather the Stones," according to Report.

Musa Marjanli, editor-in-chief of Irs (Heritage) magazine and head of the scientific-practical project "Stones Speak in Silence: Preservation of Azerbaijan's Heritage," spoke about the importance of the book:

"The main goal is to convey Azerbaijan's heritage to the world. However, Armenians did not want to allow this. They tried to obstruct foreign photographers we brought to the Western Azerbaijan territory. Nevertheless, we were able to obtain photos from nearly 50 settlements once inhabited by Azerbaijanis. Our goal is to reclaim our right to live in those lands and to restore and preserve our cultural heritage."

Farid Shafiyev, Chairman of the Board of AIR Center, spoke about how the publication came to be:

"The book presents Western Azerbaijan as an ancient land belonging to our people based on scientific and factual materials. The publication provides photographic and documentary evidence of architectural, religious, and other cultural monuments located in the region that were destroyed or erased at various times."

Rizvan Huseynov, scientific consultant for the book, drew attention to the year-by-year destruction of Azerbaijani monuments:"The book reflects all these destructions. Our goal is to introduce Azerbaijan's heritage to people in both written and visual form, and to convey the damage to the world community."

Photo: Samira Hasanova