Azernews.Az

One of the most famous and influential writers in the former Soviet countries, Chinghiz Aitmatov, has passed away in a hospital in Nuremberg, Bavaria, where he was undergoing treatment, according to Germany's DPA news agency.
The death of the 79-year-old novelist was caused by the after-effects of severe pneumonia which led to lung and renal failure.
Aitmatov was born in 1928 in a tiny village in Kyrgyzstan. His literary career took a big turn in 1958 when he wrote the novel "Jamilya" which made him famous overnight.
The text was translated into French by the poet Louis Aragon who called it "the world's most beautiful love story".
It was Aitmatov's later novel "The Scaffold" (1988) that brought him fame in the West.
He also served as Soviet, and later Kyrgyz ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as to the EU and NATO.
The Kyrgyz writer was considered one of the close friends of Azerbaijan. He had visited Azerbaijan many times and stressed the importance of cultural and literary relations between the two countries, as well as among Turkic states in general.
The Union of Azerbaijani Writers and the Ataturk Center in Azerbaijan had nominated Aitmatov's candidacy for the Nobel Prize on literature.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev conferred the writer with the country's high award, the Order of Friendship. President Aliyev said that Aitmatov was the first-ever person to receive such an order.