7^th International Baku Book Fair opened its doors to book lovers in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmedov, Minister of Culture Anar Kerimov, Minister of Education Emin Emrullayev, the Republic of Turkey Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Ahmet Misbah Demircan as well as many booklovers attended the opening of the fair on October 6, 2021 Wednesday. 

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Ahmedov celebrated all Readers Book Day in the opening ceremony of the fair, which was opened in the name of Azerbaijan's great and genius poet Nizami Gencevi and was participated by some 200 publishers from Azerbaijan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Georgia, France, Indonesia, Iran, Colombia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Egypt, Uzbekistan and Russia.

Ahmedov mentioned that it became traditional to organize such exhibitions and fairs in Azerbaijan and continued his words stating that civilization without books and writing was unimaginable: 

“FUAR HALKIMIZIN DÜNYADAKİ BÜYÜK ZAFERİNE ADANDI”

Kültür Bakanı Anar Kerimov ise 14 yıldır düzenlenen bu fuarın, Azerbaycan’ın önde gelen ve büyük ilgiyle karşılanan festivallerinden biri olduğunu belirtti. Bakan Kerimov, bu yılki fuarın “Nizami Gencevi Yılı” dolayısıyla büyük şaire ithaf edildiğini kaydetti. Fuarın temel amacının halkın kitaplara olan ilgisini artırmak ve okuma kültürünü teşvik etmek, okuyucuları yayıncılık alanındaki dijital yeniliklerle tanıştırmak, ülkedeki kitap endüstrisinin ve modern edebî süreçlerin gelişimini desteklemek olduğunu söyleyen Kerimov, iki yılda bir düzenlenen kitap fuarının artık her yıl düzenlenmesine karar verildiğini söyledi. 

Kerimov mentioned that 43 organizations from 12 countries, 121 local publishers and book related organizations participated in the fair and that more than 200 events would be organized in different formats throughout the fair. Kerimov stated that 7th International Baku Book Fair was the first international book fair that was organized by a victorious people on their sovereign lands and continued his words as follows: 

"The fair is dedicated to the great victory of our people in the world. Books, journals and other printed media have an important place in great patriotic wars. All visitors of the exhibition must pay attention to the publications in such subjects and understand our glorious history and ancient culture through these books. As you know, the Ministry of Culture and Azerbaijan National Library started the campaign "Let Us Go to Karabakh with Our Books" on January 15 of this year. A total of 55,482 books were collected within the scope of the campaign. Today, we can return both our culture and literature to Karabakh. Our people is equal to our state at every stage and moment of this great return, and the history of this 44-day victory has already become the symbol of all Azerbaijanis throughout the world."

Minister of Education Emin Amrullayev mentioned the role of books in social life and said the following stating that books were a culture and one of the main concepts at the center of education: "It is important to establish the love of books in children from an early age. Studies show that children who start to read from an early age show greater academic success in the future. This once again shows that how important books are as a reading tool in our lives."

"EVERY STRATEGY WE CREATE ON BOOKS IS A CORRECT STRATEGY"

The Republic of Turkey Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Ahmet Misbah Demircan presented the compliments of the Republic of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy to all participants of the event. Demircan mentioned that books were the fundamental starting point of the cultural relations. Demircan mentioned that humans relayed their emotions through writing and learned through reading and said, "Neither songs nor songs nor theatre would exist without books. Therefore, we should improve books, which are the most important media in explaining our culture to our teenagers and increase the number of readers." Demircan emphasized that the fair in Baku was important in terms of improving the relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey and bringing together the publishers and authors. Demircan continued his speech as follows:

"The youth here should get closer to the publications in Turkey, and the Turkish youth should get closer to the publications in Azerbaijan. Every strategy we create on books is a correct strategy."

SINAN YAĞMUR GAVE AUTOGRAPHS FOR AZERBAIJANI READERS

Baku Yunus Emre Institute participated in the 7th Baku International Book Fair organized at the Baku Expo Center and brought together the significant authors and thinkers of the Turkish literature with Azerbaijani readers. Sinan Yağmur, the author of "Aşkın Gözyaşları" (Tears of Love), autographed his books and socialized with his readers on the first the day of the fair. 

Yağmur met his readers through the session "Yunus Emre: Voice of Love" at the Baku Expo Center hall on the same day and spoke about Yunus Emre's philosophy of humanity. 

SINAN CANAN: TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR ESSENCE

Sinan Canan gave a speech on the theme of his book series "Insanın Fabrika Ayarları" (Factory Settings of Humans) for the students of Ada University before the Baku Book Fair. Canan mentioned that understanding humanity was the first stage of curing humanity and stated that almost all of the issues we face in modern life were caused by the incompatibilities from being forced to live in a civilization created by us through the authentic, biological and natural settings of humans. Canan stated that "Insanın Fabrika Ayarları" was comprised of five elements and that these elements included all the problems and mentioned the importance of returning to the essence, or in other words, to inside during his one-hour session.

Sinan Canan gave autographs and commemoration photographs to his readers at the Baku Book Fair, and a large audience listened to the author's second speech, which pointed out important issues.

A SESSION "SHALL WE FLY OUR DREAMS?" BY BIRSEN EKIM ÖZEN

Children's books author, Birsen Ekim Özen, gave autographs and talked with children and their parents at the fair. Özen, met with the students of Baku Turkish Anatolian High School at the "Shall We Fly Our Dreams?" session. Birsen gave autographs for her book Şirin at the book fair on October 9, 2021 and delivered the session entitled "How can you alienate your children from reading?" for the parents on the same day together with Fatime Alxaz, an important children's book publisher in Azerbaijan. 

The fair, which hosted 165 publishers and organizations from 13 countries, ended with the closing ceremony on October 15, 2021 Sunday.