2022 European Day of Languages and the first Literature Night in Baku

29.09.2022 / 14:37 | Aktualizováno: 01.10.2022 / 13:43

In the afternoon and late evening hours of 26 September, Embassies and cultural institutes of 17 EU and Council of Europe (CoE) Member States in cooperation with Azerbaijani partners marked the 2022 European Day of Languages by organizing public reading of poems and short stories in various European languages and the translations of these works into Azerbaijani. The public reading involving diplomats, students and graduates of Baku-based European language and culture centres took place at the Azerbaijan University of Languages (ADU) and at the Landmark where the first Literature Night in Baku took place. The 2022 European Day of Languages celebration was organized by the EUNIC Azerbaijan Cluster, currently headed by Latvia, in cooperation with the Czech EU Council Presidency.

The event at ADU was opened by its Rector, Professor Kamal Abdulla along with the Head of the EU Delegation in Azerbaijan, Ambassador Mr. Peter Michalko, the Head of the CoE Office in Azerbaijan, Mr. Petr Sich, the EUNIC Azerbaijan Cluster President and Deputy Head of Mission of Latvia, Ms Vija Buša and the Deputy Head of Mission of the Czech Republic, Mr. Daniel Putík. In his opening remarks, the Czech representative referred to the fact that works in most of the 24 official languages of the EU, consisting of 27 Member States united in diversity, were selected for reading at the event. Czech literature was represented at the 2022 European Day of Languages by stories by Ludvík Aškenazy, with translations by Ms Shabnam Asadova from the Azerbaijan State Translation Centre, and a poem by Jan Skácel, translated by a current Charles University student Ms Dilara Manafova. The poem „Caucasus“ by Taras Shevchenko represented Ukrainian literature at the 2022 Baku first Literature Night.