Turkey donated 10,000 books to the libraries which will be built in Karabakh

10,000 Turkish books will be donated to the "Let's go to Karabakh with books" project in which the books that were collected by the Federations for the Authors of the Intellectual and Artistic Works and Related Rightholders (İLESAM) and the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism will be delivered to the National Library of Azerbaijan with the support of Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).

Having spoken at the handover ceremony, the Azerbaijan Minister of Culture Anar Kerimov stated that Turkey has continued its support for the development of Karabakh in addition to their political and moral support for the war in which Karabakh was liberated.

Having stated that more than 900 libraries and 4,600,000 books were destroyed in addition to the rich historic artefacts during the occupation of Armenia, Kerimov said: "This has been one of the biggest blows to Azerbaijan, because the books are the source of building conscience. The only way to bring back our culture to Karabakh is to rebuild the libraries there."

Kerimov expressed that the "Let's go to Karabakh with books" project, which was initiated by the Ministry and the National Library, has been growing each day and he said: "Turkey, our brother nation, has provided great support in this area. Today, we'll share the books that you provided with the libraries in Karabakh. Our people will return to this area and read these books. Those days are not far away".

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cahit Bağcı, Ambassador of Turkey to Baku, reminded that Turkey will stand by Azerbaijan in every opportunity and said: "Today, our support took place in a different way. Today, we stand by Azerbaijan with books. İLESAM has built a whole new bridge, from one brother to another. We have a saying in Turkey: "Books make the best gifts". Today, Turkey's first gift to Karabakh has been books. Turkey wants to take part in projects in education and culture as well as rebuilding Karabakh together."

Mehmet Nuri Parmaksız, President of İLESAM, expressed his delight for providing such services and stated that this support was provided thanks to many different organizations in Turkey.

Having recorded that they wanted to bring books that were written in Azerbaijani Turkish to Turkey as well as bringing Turkish books to Azerbaijan, Parmaksız said that they could contribute into the enrichment of the Azerbaijan section of the National Library inside the Presidential Complex.

10,000 Turkish books will be donated to the "Let's go to Karabakh with books" project carried out by the Azerbaijan Ministry of Culture and the National Library with the support of TİKA. Thanks to the books donated to this campaign, new libraries will be built in Karabakh which has been liberated from occupation.