Baku, November 23, AZERTAC

The presentation of the book "Karabakh Khanate: Historical and Cultural Profile," published with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and the exhibition titled “Karabakh Khanate: Pearls of Azerbaijan's Cultural Heritage” was held at the National Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw. The event was organized by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Poland with the support of Azerbaijan International Development Agency and the Eurasian International Development Association.

Speakers at the event included Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Poland Nargiz Gurbanova, Director of the National Ethnographic Museum Magdalena Wroblevska, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian International Development Association Elchin Asgarov, researcher of Sapienza University of Rome, Professor Daniel Pommier Vincelli, Deputy Chief Curator of the National Museum of Georgia Tebrone Nadiradze and representative of the Polish Witold Pilecki Institute, Yezhi Rohojinski, Doctor of Philosophy in History.

Ambassador Nargiz Gurbanova expressed her gratitude to the National Museum of Georgia, the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, and the Eurasian International Development Association for their support in organizing the event. The ambassador drew attention to the fact that the establishment of sovereign feudal state institutions - khanates in the territory of Azerbaijan is one of the important stages of the centuries-old history of Azerbaijani nation. She emphasized that one of such khanates is the Karabakh khanate, which was founded by Panah Ali Khan Javanshir, one of the most prominent statesmen of the 18th century Azerbaijan, from the Saricali clan of the Javanshir tribe. The ambassador also gave information about the city of Shusha, the capital of the Karabakh Khanate, mentioning that its foundation was laid in 1752. She stated that the city, which was initially named Panahabad, rapidly developed into one of Azerbaijan's primary trade and craft cities, serving as the economic center of Karabakh.

The ambassador added that as a result of the 44-day Patriotic War in 2020, Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and fully ensured its sovereignty over the Karabakh region through the anti-terrorist measures implemented in September 2023. She informed the event participants about the restoration of Azerbaijan`s rich cultural heritage with the liberation of territories occupied for nearly 30 years, as well as the commencement of the process of reconstruction and economic revival in the region.

Nargiz Gurbanova outlined that the book "Karabakh Khanate: Historical and Cultural Profile" contains more than 300 artefacts that are part of the bright heritage of Karabakh and that its publication in 2022 coincides with the 270th anniversary of the city of Shusha, the heart of Karabakh. Noting that the publication of the mentioned book is a wonderful example of effective cooperation between academic circles and civil society representatives of Azerbaijan and Georgia. The ambassador specifically emphasized that last year, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Georgia, Irakli Garibashvili, participated in the presentation of the book in Georgia. Gurbanova expressed hope that the book will encourage historians and art critics in Poland to study the history of Karabakh and Azerbaijan as a whole.

Elchin Asgarov, the Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian International Development Association, stated that Azerbaijan, alongside other South Caucasus countries, was part of the Russian Empire and later the USSR, for many years, while all the primary research on the history, archaeology, and ethnography of the country and the region coincided with those years. Asgarov reported that the employees of the Caucasus Museum, established by Russia in Tbilisi, organized expeditions to different regions of the Caucasus, including Karabakh, and collected a large number of artefacts and brought them to the museum in different years, meanwhile most of these materials remained in the warehouses of the museum, unopened and unexamined.

He also noted that out of thousands of new materials and artifacts found in the archives, approximately 300 of them were included in the book, stating that these materials reflect information about the history, culture, everyday life, and beliefs of the Karabakh region.

The presentation of the book "Karabakh Khanate: Historical and Cultural Profile" and the exhibition titled "Karabakh Khanate: Pearls of the Cultural Heritage of Azerbaijan" held at the National Museum of Ethnography were met with great interest and sympathy by the guests. The exhibition continued with a banquet.