On October 26, People's Artist of Azerbaijan, Honored Artist, famous Azerbaijani announcer Rafig Huseynov passed away in German clinic. His wife asked not to spread information about his death immediately, because she wanted her daughter to be psychologically prepared for this tragic news.
Rafig Huseynov was born in 1946 in Shusha. He worked as a television announcer since he was 18 - for more than 50 years. He stopped appearing on television in the 1990s, but ten years ago he returned and became artistic director of TV presenters of the Azerbaijan State Television. For a long time, Rafig Huseynov had serious illness. Turkish and German doctors tried to help him. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation financed expensive treatment.
"Rafig Huseynov was rightly called the face of Azerbaijan. He was an outstanding announcer of the Azerbaijani television," Soviet and Azeri diplomat Ramiz Abutalybov said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza. "I knew him for more than 40 years - we met in the late 1970s. He brilliantly mastered two languages, Azerbaijani and Russian. He was a leading announcer, he knew how to analyze things. He was very popular in Baku. God rest his soul."
Head of the humanitarian relations department of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation branch in Russia, Tamila Akhmedova, said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza: "Rafig Huseynov's death is a very big loss for Azerbaijani television. He was one of the brightest, most outstanding announcers of his time. After working on television for such a long time he created his own style, his own manner. I hope that he had students that will continue his work, because he was very talented, very capable. I think his name became an integral part of the history of Azerbaijani television. His death is a great loss, but I think that people won't forget him, many will try to imitate him or at least learn from his experience."
