Press release, 22 February 2013
Vydas Gedvilas, Speaker of the Seimas, met with Prof. Kamal Abdulla, a contemporary Azerbaijani author and a nominee for the Nobel Prize 2012. They discussed the necessity of strengthening cultural cooperation between both countries. Mr Gedvilas observed that Lithuania and Azerbaijan had been bound by close relations for several years now: from September 2009, the Office of the Seimas ran a biennial twinning project titled Support to the Milli Mejlis (Parliament) of the Republic of Azerbaijan; scholars of both countries increasingly find a lot of common ground and Lithuanian entertainment (television) business representatives are also engaged with their projects in Azerbaijan. The Speaker particularly underlined the importance of growing cultural and science cooperation and welcomed the news from Prof. Abdulla on the cooperation agreement between the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and Baku Slavic University signed that day.
Prof. Abdulla said that the agreement aims to establish student exchange programmes. In addition, there are plans to open a programme of the Azeri language, literature and culture at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and a programme of the Lithuanian language, literature and culture at Baku Slavic University. The Professor also informed about the first Lithuanian – Azeri Dictionary being compiled at the moment.
The Azerbaijani author asserted that the growing cooperation between Lithuania and Azerbaijan resulted from a natural mutual affinity between the two countries since both nations, as Prof. Abdulla puts it, share many things in common, such as past experience, world views and perception of goodness, without even realising it.
The meeting was also attended by Julius Dautartas, a film director and former Member of the Seimas; Namig Gafarov, a linguist and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Baku Slavic University; Dr Vidas Kavaliauskas, Professor at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences and Lionė Lapinskienė, teacher of the Lithuanian language at Mykolas Karka Basic School who has translated into Lithuanian the Wizards’ Valley by Kamal Abdulla.
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Kamal Abdulla, a contemporary Azerbaijani author, nominee for the Nobel Prize 2012, professor and academician, Rector of Baku Slavic University, Director of the Azerbaijani State Culture Foundation, famous public figure, has authored a number of scientific studies and methodological tools in the fields of linguistics and literature studies. His scholarly articles have been published in scientific journals in Azerbaijan, Brazil, Poland, Russia and Turkey.
Prof. Abdulla writes prose, poetry and drama. His writings have been translated into 15 languages: Arab, Belarusian, Bulgarian, English, Estonian, French, Georgian, German, Kazakh, Lithuanian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Turkish.
Saulė Eglė Trembo, Public Relations Unit, tel: +370 239 6203, e-mail: [email protected]
