Branch of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan created in Israel

In Tel Aviv, the first meeting was held of the initiative group for the creation of the Israeli branch of Russian-language writers - immigrants from Azerbaijan under the Union of Writers of the Azerbaijan Republic.

"The idea of creating a new association has received approval and support of the leadership of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan during the last Congress and the anniversary of the organization in June. Kind words to the new association were expressed by the national writer, Azerbaijan Writers' Union Chairman, Anar, and the national poet of Azerbaijan, the First Secretary of the Union of Writers, Fikret Goja, said Peter Lyukimson, Israeli Russian-language writer, who began his creative life in Baku.

The initiative group on the creation of the association includes such well-known Israeli Russian-language writers, journalists and publishers, as Peter Lyukimson, Miriam Haley, Paul (Pesach) Amnuel, Mark Kotlyarskii, Mark Gorin, Sofa Vargazer et al.

The writer Roman Gurevich became Chairman of the Israeli branch of the Union of Writers of Azerbaijan.
"All of them in their speeches said that the idea of bringing together the Russian-language writers – immigrants from Azerbaijan has been brewing for a long time and the best option of such a union is its positioning as a branch of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan in Israel," said Lyukimson.

According to the initiators of the project, the occurrence of such an organization will allow, on the one hand, the significant intensification of the Israeli-Azerbaijani literary and - increasingly - common cultural communication, to introduce a Russian-speaking community of Israel, and the general Israeli public with a treasure trove of classic and contemporary Azerbaijani literature, and on the other - strengthen contacts of the writers themselves with the country of origin and help them in creative projects, one way or another connected with Azerbaijan.

The fact that today there are many such projects, was noted by almost all the participants in the meeting. We are talking about creating or preparing for printing books on various, including the relatively recent, pages of the history of Azerbaijan, its outstanding writers, poets and playwrights; and the creation of new works of fiction and nonfiction, in cooperation with Azerbaijani counterparts, and the release of the joint literary magazines and anthologies, and many other things.

It is supposed to develop the most promising of these projects with the guidance of the Writers’ Union of Azerbaijan, and for their preliminary assessment, it was decided to create a Council of Experts composed of M. Kotlyarskii, P. Lyukimson, M. Gorin and P. Amnuel. The Chairman of the Board is an outstanding Azerbaijani writer living permanently in Israel, Chingiz Huseynov< who kindly agreed to assume this office.

It is expected that in the near future the association will host a reception for new members that will automatically receive membership in the Israeli branch of the Writers' Union of Azerbaijan. The conditions of admission to the association and the submission of applications for projects related to the expansion of Israeli-Azerbaijani relations in literature will be announced in October - just after the traditional Jewish holidays. -0-