VDNKh is holding the Moscow International Book Fair. The forum brought together about 500 publishing houses from Russia and post-Soviet and foreign countries. The participants include publishers and authors from Azerbaijan, Albania, the UAE, Armenia, Belarus, Hungary, Venezuela, Germany, Egypt, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, China, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Turkey, Ukraine, France and Japan.
"Azerbaijan is the traditional participant of the Moscow International Book Fair. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan has participated in this book forum every year since its creation. Today there are more than 350 book names in our exposition, plus postcards, brochures, booklets, which span the entire current reality of Azerbaijan. There are books associated with the activities of modern man. There are science, culture, history, art, politics and everything interesting for today's reader.
We participate in all major bookstore forums in the world. Including annual forums in England, France, Germany, Frankfurt, Russia and the Arab countries. This is an exchange of experience. We try to be aware of what is going on in the world art of printing. And at the same time we are demonstrating our products. The ties between the publishers of Azerbaijan and other countries are improving. There is a learning of the algorithm of the book market in the world today, and we take an active part in it," the Honored Art Worker of Azerbaijan, the head of poetry department of the Union of Azerbaijani Writers, Chingiz Alioglu, told Vestnik Kavkaza.
Iran was a special guest of the fair. Iranian Minister of Culture, Ali Jannati, told Vestnik Kavkaza that he took part in the Moscow International Book Fair for the first time, and it was very interesting. "There is a very interesting area, a broad international representation. This exhibition takes place not only in order to present books – some cultural essence is presented here. The fair brought together representatives of culture, intellectuals, Russian scientists and writers, who are meeting each other, holding conferences and round tables."
"Along with Iranian literature, we are presenting Russian literature translated into Farsi. And vice versa. Hopefully, our literature will be interesting to the Russian people, who will get acquainted with the culture of Iran".
"A memorandum on cooperation between the Moscow Book Fair and the Tehran International Book Fair was signed. We hope that after the signing of this memorandum, the two countries will participate in relevant exhibitions each year, and we will see even more active presence of Russian and Iranian publishers at their exhibits," the Iranian Minister of Culture, Ali Jannati, said.
Politics was involved as well. A professor of Tehran University, Doctor of historical sciences Hossein Ardestani, told Vestnik Kavkaza: "Our association of publishers of the Iran-Iraq war came to the Moscow International Book Fair to acquaint Russian readers with the events that occurred in our country. We had to fight Iraq and, as a result of the Iran-Iraq war, works devoted to this tragedy have been written. For Iran this war is similar to the Great Patriotic War in Russia – it is no less a tragedy. We hope that the books devoted to the Iran-Iraq war will resonate in the hearts of Russian citizens and we hope that we will be able to establish contacts with Russian publishers and readers who are interested in this topic at this exhibition.
Today countries like Vietnam, Russia, Iran and Palestine have become examples of the war against imperialism. We want to tell about our resistance, the opposition to imperialism, since this confrontation has lasted for eight years. We have fought imperialism, and when it came to Iran's nuclear program, we have resisted the US and the sanctions they have imposed on us for 12 years. Russian Federation has provided us a lot of help in resolving this problem."
The exhibition will last until September 6.
