Azernews.Az

By Laman Ismayilova

Baku has hosted alpagut tournament timed to the 94th birthday anniversary of National Leader Heydar Aliyev.

The competition was co-organized by Azerbaijan Alpagut Federation and Baku Youth and Sports Department, Trend Life reported.

In their speech, President of Alpagut Federation Agil Ajalov, Deputy Head of the Baku City Head Office of Youth and Sports Aydin Yusifov and the head coach of the sport society of Azerbaijan Interior Ministry, deputy director general of 'Trend' Arzu Nagiyev stressed an outstanding role of National Leader Heydar Aliyev and President Ilham Aliyev in the development of sports, moral education of youth in the country and making the Republic known to the world as a sporting nation. Many sports facilities and Olympic complexes were built in Azerbaijan. Moreover, the national athletes have achieved high results in the international arena.

The tournament brought together 2000 young athletes. The winners became Aghdam`s "Batur" team, Interior Ministry's sport society and "Jaymaz"- athletes Baku`s Garadagh district.

The winners and persons, who have contributed to the development of alpagut in the country, were awarded with honorary diplomas. The event continued with fascinating concert program.

Alpagut is a martial art with its canons, traditions and philosophy. The word Alpagut consists of two words- Alp which means ‘warrior’ and kulsal that means ‘saint’. These are saint soldiers who battled for the sake of national and universal ideals.

Preserving its uniqueness Alpagut could retain its relevance nowadays. A lot of alpagut sports schools opened in Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Australia, Iran, USA, Canada, Germany, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

The ancient sport which unites mixed Turkic martial arts represents three systems: Aypara, Batur, and Jima.

The first one is similar to full contact karate, but there are also grabs and throws. The Batur system is similar to the fighting. However, it is not allowed to fight on the ground more than 20 seconds.

The Jaimas system is similar with K1 and Thaiboxing.

The fighting usually takes place in the wolf and falcon circle. Wolf and falcon circles are the totem that belongs to the Turkic world. The fighting lasts 9 minutes.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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