Azerbaijani poet Nasimi’s memory commemorated at UNESCO headquarters

The 600th anniversary of the death of the great Azerbaijani poet and thinker Imadaddin Nasimi was marked at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on May 18.

The event was co-organized by Azerbaijan's Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the country's Permanent Mission to UNESCO as part of a series of events marking the 25th anniversary of Azerbaijan's UNESCO membership.

Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Elchin Afandiyev, in his opening remarks, highlighted Nasimi's role in the world literature and philosophical thought.

Afandiyev hailed fruitful Azerbaijan-UNESCO relations, and Azerbaijan's First Vice-President, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva's significant contributions to the development of these relations, whose history spans 25 years.

Permanent Representative of Azerbaijan to UNESCO, Ambassador Anar Karimov highlighted the great impact of Nasimi`s poetry on the development of the Azerbaijani poetic language.

Assistant Director-General for External Relations and Public Information at UNESCO Eric Falt, in turn, noted that Nasimi was a source of inspiration for artists, writers and other art figures. "His ideas and philosophical thoughts promote peace and encourage people to unite around the shared values," said Falt.

Candidate for the post of UNESCO Director-General, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Russia Polad Bulbuloglu said people should unite around the human values, which Nasimi promoted and died for 600 years ago.

The event then featured a concert-ballet by Azerbaijani composer and pianist Firangiz Alizade, UNESCO Artist for Peace, and an exhibition devoted to the great poet.

Imadaddin Nasimi, born in Azerbaijan’s Shamakhi, was a poet, philosopher and one of the most popular reprehensive of hurufism faith. The great poet has left vast and precious poetic legacy in Azerbaijani, Persian and Arabic languages. His poetry has made a significant impact on the development of Azerbaijani as well as Ottoman Turkish poetic languages over the centuries.

The ideas of free spiritual choice and principle of universal love guided the poet towards tolerance, looking above the boundaries, seeking the image of God hidden in every single human being. In this sense his perseverance, moral fortitude, along with intricate interplay of crystal clear language and most abstract and hermetic metaphors has made this personality one of the prominent figures in the Islamic poetry and worldwide literature.