“The Road to independence: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania” exhibition opens in Prague
Prague, January 20, AZERTAC
Azerbaijani Student Organization, Azerbaijan Student Network, The Union of Georgian Students in the Czech Republic and the Lithuanian Embassy in the Czech Republic have arranged “The Road to Independence: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Lithuania” photo exhibition at the Lucerna Palace in Prague. During the exhibition, that will run until February 2, the organizers will showe Czech citizens and visitors of the city more than 40 photographs of the events in Tbilisi, Baku and Vilnius which occurred on 9 April 1989, 20 January 1990 and 13 January 1991 respectively. “The three countries together have shown the cost of the freedom for each of them from the “prison of nations” under the name of the USSR,” Azerbaijan Student Network said on its website.
The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the diplomatic corps in the Czech Republic, Czech officials, in particular former European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Štefan Füle, scientists, Azerbaijani, Lithuanian, Georgian, Czech students studying in Prague, diaspora members of the three countries, and media representatives.
“With this exhibition, we want to show that we remember, the way our people fought for independence and we honor the ultimate sacrifices made by our fellow citizens,” said the manager of Azerbaijan Student Network and supervisor of the exhibition Geda Montvilaite.
Azerbaijani Ambassador Farid Shafiyev recounted events of the Black January tragedy in Baku during which Soviet soldiers killed 147 people. “The Soviet leaders sent troops under the pretext of reestablishing order and stability in Baku, but in this case it is not clear why it was necessary to blow TV center and interrupt communications in the city. The only purpose of the invasion was to punish the protesters,” said the Ambassador. Mr Shafiyev stressed that despite the extreme brutality in suppressing the protest, the Soviet government didn’t achieve what they had desired and couldn’t break the will of the Azerbaijani people. “The best proof of that is the fact that after 25 years since the Black January I’m standing here in Prague in front of you as an ambassador of the independent Republic of Azerbaijan,” he added.
Parvana Garayeva
Special Correspondent
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