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Laman Ismayilova

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The next edition of the Vagif Poetry Days will be held from July 16 to 18, AzerNEWS reports.

The event is organized by the Azerbaijan Culture Ministry and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation.

This year's events will be held under the motto "The Story of the Word" and are aimed at preserving the legacy of the prominent Azerbaijani poet and statesman Molla Panah Vagif, safeguarding the nation's literary heritage, and contributing to the development of contemporary literary processes.

The poetry festival will begin on July 16 in the Gazakh district, the birthplace of Molla Panah Vagif, and continue on July 17 in Shusha, Azerbaijan's cultural capital.

The opening ceremony, to be held in front of the Molla Panah Vagif Museum-Mausoleum Complex, will feature speeches by government officials, writers, poets, and representatives of international organizations. This will be followed by the stage production "The Hunter of Words – 'My Heart Longs for Karabakh'", dedicated to the 120th anniversary of People's Poet Samad Vurgun.

As part of the Poetry Days, audiences will enjoy literary and musical performances dedicated to the works of Molla Panah Vagif and Azerbaijani classical poetry, along with a variety of literary events.

This year's festival will also introduce several new initiatives. A "Book Stop" pavilion will be inaugurated, while the Second Turkic World Young Poets Festival, organized in partnership with TÜRKSOY, will take place in Shusha.

The program also includes meetings between readers and People's Poets Sabir Rustamkhanli, Vahid Aziz, and Ramiz Rovshan, as well as the theatrical production "The Humor of the Word – Shusha Stories."

The final day of the festival will feature a series of events dedicated to outstanding representatives of Azerbaijani and the broader Turkic literary heritage. These include a scientific conference titled "The Khagan of Words – I Am Khagani, Khagani", marking the 900th anniversary of Khagani Shirvani, and the literary-musical composition "The Longing of the Word – 'Greetings to Heydar Baba'", dedicated to the 120th anniversary of Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar.

The Vagif Poetry Days will conclude with the grand concert program "The Triumph of the Word – The Echo of Victory."

It is worth noting that the series of events organized within the framework of the Vagif Poetry Days holds particular significance in the context of the "Azerbaijan Culture – 2040" Concept, especially with regard to its priority objectives for the development of literature.

The foundations of the Vagif Poetry Days were laid in 1982 in Shusha at the initiative of National Leader Heydar Aliyev. It was then, with his participation, that the Molla Panah Vagif Mausoleum and the Poetry House were officially inaugurated. On his instruction, it was also decided that the Vagif Poetry Days would become an annual event. Until 1991, the festival traditionally began in Gazakh, the poet's homeland, and concluded on the picturesque Jidir Duzu plain in Shusha.

Following the liberation of Shusha as a result of the victory of the Azerbaijani Army under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, the Vagif Poetry Days returned to their historic home and are once again being held in Azerbaijan's cultural capital.