Category: Azer News

The Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre has officially opened its 154th theatrical season with a ceremony attended by the theatre’s creative and administrative staff.

Theatre Director and Honored Cultural Worker Ilham Asgaroglu congratulated the staff on the start of the new season and spoke about upcoming projects, as well as the theatre’s main priorities and objectives.

He noted that the State Concept “Azerbaijani Culture – 2040”, which sets out the main directions of the country’s cultural development for the coming years, places important tasks before the cultural sector. These include preserving national cultural heritage, creating a modern and competitive cultural environment, and promoting Azerbaijani art more widely internationally.

Particular attention will be paid to expanding the theatre’s international ties during the 154th season. Key priorities include increasing the theatre’s participation in international festivals, developing joint projects with foreign theatres, expanding artistic exchanges, and presenting Azerbaijani drama and the national theatre tradition to wider audiences abroad.

The opening ceremony also featured the presentation of anniversary awards to theatre employees.

Elnur Mammadov, head of the Actors Management Department, received the “Anniversary” award for his successful work in the theatre sector and on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

Assistant Director Khanimbaji Hasanova was presented with the same award for her successful work in the theatre sector and on the occasion of her 65th birthday.

Honored Artist of Azerbaijan Anar Geybatov also received the “Anniversary” award for his contribution to theatre and marking his 50th birthday.

The official opening of the 154th theatrical season took place on September 11 with a performance of “Karabakhname”, based on the play of the same name by People’s Writer of Azerbaijan Ilyas Afandiyev.

The production was directed by People’s Artist Merahim Farzalibayov.

The Azerbaijan State Academic National Drama Theatre is one of the country’s leading drama institutions and has played an important role in the development of Azerbaijani theatre.

Its history dates to March 10, 1873, when a production based on Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh’s comedy The Adventures of the Vizier of the Lankaran Khanate was staged in Baku. The performance is regarded as the beginning of professional Azerbaijani national theatre.

The theatre became a state institution in 1919 and received academic status in 1959. It has operated under its current name since 1991.

The theatre’s repertoire spans Azerbaijani classics and works of world drama. It has staged plays by prominent national writers, including Mirza Fatali Akhundzadeh, Huseyn Javid, Jafar Jabbarli, Najaf bey Vazirov, Abdurrahim bey Hagverdiyev and Ilyas Afandiyev. Its productions have also featured such renowned international playwrights as William Shakespeare, Moliere, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Victor Hugo, Alexander Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy.

Over the years, the theatre has presented tragedies, comedies and modern dramatic works, while continuing to give a prominent place to Azerbaijani playwrights and national theatrical traditions.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi urged member states to recommit to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, stressing the importance of adhering to the IAEA’s legal framework “at this time of heightened tensions and distrust.”

Speaking at the IAEA’s General Conference, he said the situation in the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and other Ukrainian nuclear facilities remains “highly fragile,” but that the agency’s work on the ground continues. He reported that the IAEA has resolved outstanding issues regarding Syria’s past nuclear activities through cooperation with the Syrian government.

However, he also pointed out that the agency has not had any information on Iran’s nuclear stockpile for over a year and reiterated that the matter must be addressed “with the utmost urgency.”

Azerbaijani Olympic champion Hidayat Heydarov is expected to recover from his injury before the start of the 2026 World Judo Championships in Baku.

The Azerbaijan Judo Federation stated that Heydarov’s injury is not serious and that he is expected to be fit for the 2026 Senior World Judo Championships. However, his inclusion in Azerbaijan’s squad will ultimately depend on a decision by the coaching staff and medical team.

Recall that Hidayat Heydarov withdrew from the Budapest Judo Grand Slam 2026 because of the injury.

The 2026 World Judo Championships will be held at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku from October 4 to 11.

The individual competition will take place from October 4 to 10, with the mixed team event scheduled for October 11.

The championships are expected to feature leading judokas from around the world competing for world titles in the men’s and women’s weight categories.

The event will conclude with the mixed team competition on October 11.

Hidayat Heydarov is an Azerbaijani judoka and the Olympic champion in the men’s 73 kg category. He won Olympic gold at the Paris 2024 Games, defeating France’s Joan-Benjamin Gaba in the final.

Hidayat Heydarov is also a four-time European champion, with continental titles in 2017, 2022, 2023 and 2024.

In 2026, the judoka moved up to the 81 kg category and continued his international career in the new weight class.

Keeping old wounds open has always been easier than building new bridges. Yet as cities are rebuilt, supply chains are reconnected, and pragmatic diplomacy begins to quiet the noise of inherited grievance, those who built careers on perpetual conflict find themselves losing their audience. The smear campaigns that we witness nowadays are not evidence of strength but rather proof of irrelevance as the region is forging its own path towards peace. The same region, finally charting its own peace, leaving little room for those whose influence depended entirely on its destruction.

This month it was a diplomatic tour – 150 representatives from 58 countries and nine international organisations, walking through Shusha, Gandzasar (Ganjasar), Dadivank (Khudavang), Aghdara, Kalbajar, territories that spent thirty years as a closed military zone rather than a place anyone could actually visit. The response from parts of the Armenian diaspora was not measured disagreement. It was fury, in language too crude to reprint, directed at ambassadors for the offence of showing up and looking around. One widely shared post called them “political prostitutes.” Another demanded formal diplomatic notes be sent in protest, not against any documented harm, but against the fact that foreign officials had been permitted to see the region with their own eyes rather than take a single community’s word for what stood there.

But there is something worth sitting with in that reaction. A society genuinely confident in its account of events does not need to keep outsiders from looking. It invites them, and trusts the evidence to speak. The energy on display here, the insults, the demands for censure, the fury that anyone dared laugh at a political jibe, reads less like the defence of a historical truth than the defence of a narrative that cannot survive contact with the ground it describes.

The industry that needs the wound to stay open

However, in all senses, none of this is to dismiss what either side has lost. Displacement is real on both ends of this conflict: the hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis driven from Karabakh and its surrounding districts in the 1990s, and the Armenians who left the same land in reverse thirty years later. Grief is real for both peoples, and both trace their national memory through centuries of hardship that entitle them to mourn what these decades cost. Azerbaijan has its own dead, its own destroyed towns, its own generation raised on stories of a home they had never seen and might never return to. But there is a difference between two nations mourning and processing loss in parallel, however unevenly, and a diaspora lobby that has, consciously or not, built an entire political identity around never being allowed to move past it. To some of the organizations based in Paris, Los Angeles and Beirut, this conflict is not just something to remember. This is their raison d’être – the very reason why people donate money to them, why politicians respond to their calls, why a newsletter has an audience. To such organizations, peace is a layoff notice.

That is a harsh thing to say about people who would insist, sincerely, that they act from love of homeland rather than institutional self-interest. Perhaps some do. But intention and effect are different things, and the effect of demanding “zero weakness,” of treating every diplomatic visit as treason and every restored monument as erasure, is to keep an entire region hostage to a grievance that people actually living there are trying, however imperfectly, to move past. Geography does not change to suit anyone’s preferred narrative. The Armenians and Azerbaijanis who share this stretch of the Caucasus will still be neighbours in fifty years, whichever slogans are shouted from abroad today. Peace is not a betrayal of memory, and it is what allows memory to stop being a prison for the generations who inherit it without having chosen it.

Now, as it seems, the ones crying in high notes do not understand the mere fact that the stakes at play are much higher than any tour around monasteries. Even the solution to Yerevan-Baku is much more than a legal game where you draw borders on a map. It is the opening of corridors that have been closed for three decades and that connect Central Asia with Europe and the Black Sea with the Persian Gulf. When borders become barriers and not just a simple line, they isolate people from opportunities, from markets, from one another. Opened transit routes do not simply carry goods, as all those headlines write, but also the reward of peace itself in the form of employment and trade, the simple activity of commerce that war had denied to everyone for thirty years. And cultural argument follows the same logic. Placing Gandzasar and Dadivank into the broader context of Caucasian Albania’s complex and multiconfessional history is not an exercise in denial, despite how many times the accusation is made. The South Caucasus was never the sole legacy of one narrative, but one formed by generations of people, including but not limited to Albanians, Armenians, Georgians, Persians, Turks, and others. To demand that there is only one story is not faithfulness to history but a monopoly on history, and monopolies do not generally last long under scrutiny.

Whose future, if not theirs?

What the current campaign against the peace agenda ultimately targets is not really Baku. It is Armenia’s own right to exist as a sovereign country charting its own course, rather than a permanent client of a diaspora that experiences the conflict from a safe distance and pays none of its daily costs. The true peace requires much more from people than simply reminiscence of good old times, it requires that a region breaks away from those maps where nobody recognizes its reality anymore and forgets about rhetoric of grievance that was acquired from somewhere else and not from personal experience. Every renovated road and every restored monument or signed protocol is going to be much stronger than this campaign trying to ruin it – since treaties and roads belong to the people living there, not to the people who are already safe.

Russian presidential aide Nikolai Patrushev has threatened Poland with the use of Russia’s ‘entire arsenal’ of forces and resources if Warsaw enters into a military conflict with Moscow, claiming that the Polish state could cease to exist within days.

‘If Poland engages in military action against Russia, our country will deploy its entire arsenal of forces and resources, and the Polish state will cease to exist within two or three days,’ Patrushev said in an interview with Russian media.

Patrushev also criticized Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski over his assessment of the military capabilities of Russia and Poland.

‘The head of Polish diplomacy is clearly making an amateurish assessment of our country’s military might, unwilling to understand that during a special military operation, the Russian armed forces do not use their full potential,’ he said, referring to Moscow’s term for its war in Ukraine.

Patrushev claimed that Russia has not deployed its full military potential in Ukraine and suggested that Moscow possesses significantly greater capabilities than those currently being used.

At the same time, the Russian official repeated Moscow’s position that Russia does not pose a threat to European countries.

He claimed that Polish authorities ‘do not want to hear’ Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statements that Moscow has no intention of going to war with Europe.

The remarks come amid heightened security concerns in Poland over possible Russian provocations and the broader threat posed by the war in Ukraine.

Poland steps up preparedness

Poland’s Interior Ministry has launched a television campaign aimed at informing citizens about how to respond to emergencies, including natural disasters and security threats.

The campaign includes segments on TVP1 and the TVP2 morning program Pytanie na sniadanie.

Sikorski has also said that Poland intends to become increasingly prepared for potential provocations from Russia.

The developments come as European countries continue to strengthen their preparedness amid concerns over the potential spillover of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has separately warned that Russia would face a response if it attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructure during the coming winter.

A solo concert by young singer Roya Aliyeva has been held as part of the project “Young Voices Speak to the Future” (G?nc s?sl?r g?l?c?y? s?sl?nir), organized within the 3rd Fidan Hajiyeva International Opera Festival.

The concert took place at the Fidan Hajiyeva Vocal Music School and served as one of the festival’s platforms for young performers to showcase their artistic abilities to a wider audience.

Opening the evening, People’s Artist of Azerbaijan Fidan Hajiyeva said that, for the first time in the country’s history, a major classical arts festival would run for three months, from September 7 to December 7.

“For me, this festival is not simply a series of concerts. It is the result of many years of belief in a particular vision of art, my confidence in the future of Azerbaijani opera and my desire to support young talent,” Hajiyeva said.

She noted that “Young Voices Speak to the Future” is one of the festival’s key projects this year, with the programme featuring a number of solo concerts by young singers, joint performances, vocal evenings and masterclasses.

The festival is dedicated to Hajiyeva’s 50th birthday and the 30th anniversary of her artistic career. Events are being held not only in Baku and different regions of Azerbaijan, but also abroad, including Paris, London, Milan and Minsk. Around 30 musical and cultural events are planned as part of the festival.

Particular attention has been given to the younger generation, with some events scheduled at leading higher education institutions across the country to give young audiences an opportunity to become more familiar with classical music and opera.

The festival will conclude with the gala concert “Carmen. Half a Century of an Artist’s Life” on December 7 at the Heydar Aliyev Palace. Alongside music associated with one of the best-known figures in world opera, Carmen, the programme will feature works from Azerbaijani and international classical repertoire.

The concert will be accompanied by the Niyazi State Symphony Orchestra conducted by People’s Artist Yalchin Adigozalov. The participation of a renowned Spanish flamenco group will add a distinctive rhythm and character to the evening.

“My greatest wish is that we hear new names after this festival – that new soloists come onto the stage, find their audiences and become the artists who will shape the future of Azerbaijani opera,” Hajiyeva added.

At her solo concert, 21-year-old Roya Aliyeva demonstrated her versatility by performing works by Azerbaijani and international classical composers. In addition to vocal pieces, she also showcased her skills on the piano and violin.

Aliyeva is a graduate of the Baku Academy of Music, where she studied violin. At the same time, she received vocal training at the Fidan Hajiyeva Vocal Music School under Honored Artist Farid Aliyev. For the past year, she has also worked at the school as a violin teacher.

This is Aliyeva’s second appearance at the International Opera Festival. Last year, she attracted attention for her portrayal of Telli in the operetta “Arshin Mal Alan” by renowned Azerbaijani composer Uzeyir Hajibayli.

“It is a great honour for me to work at this school, to be alongside Fidan Hajiyeva and to be part of this festival. It creates opportunities for young people to develop their talents and express themselves,” Aliyeva said.

She added that the support provided to young performers was particularly valuable, noting that they are guided with sincerity and dedication as they take their first steps toward professional careers.

The solo concert marked another important stage in Aliyeva’s artistic development. Her programme included works from the operatic and chamber repertoires, as well as popular retro compositions. She was accompanied by concertmaster Samra Hasanli and guitarist Javid Alakbarli.

The “Young Voices Speak to the Future” project continues to support one of the festival’s central aims: creating practical opportunities for young performers to gain professional stage experience, develop their artistic careers and reach new audiences.

Such concerts provide emerging artists not only with valuable performance experience but also with an opportunity to establish themselves before a wider audience. For some of today’s participants, these early appearances could mark the beginning of careers that will eventually take them to major stages in Azerbaijan and around the world.

Media partners of the event are Azernews.Az, Trend.Az, Day.Az and Milli.Az.

The Azerbaijan National Library has prepared virtual and traditional book exhibitions marking Knowledge Day, observed on September 15.

The exhibitions feature publications in Azerbaijani and foreign languages covering the history of education in Azerbaijan, education and science policy, and the country’s national education strategy.

The displays also highlight the role of National Leader Heydar Aliyev in the development of education in Azerbaijan, as well as the activities of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in the country’s education sector.

The exhibitions further showcase materials on state attention to the development of education, the work and legacy of prominent Azerbaijani educators, and other topics related to education and learning.

The virtual exhibition is available on the National Library’s website, while the traditional book exhibition is being held at the library.

Knowledge Day, observed annually on September 15 in Azerbaijan, marks the beginning of the new academic year.

The day is associated with the start of classes in schools and other educational institutions and is marked by events welcoming students and teachers at the beginning of the new academic year.

It is also an occasion to emphasize the importance of education and knowledge and their role in the country’s development.

US rapper Macklemore has been removed from the remaining US dates of Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour after making pro-Palestinian remarks during performances at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

Macklemore announced his removal from the tour in a lengthy Instagram statement on September 14, saying he and Sheeran had held ‘some difficult conversations this past week’ before Sheeran and his team decided to remove him from the tour.

The controversy followed Macklemore’s performances at MetLife Stadium on September 4 and 5. During a speech between songs on September 4, the Grammy-winning rapper called for a ‘Free Palestine’ and said he wanted people in Gaza and the ‘occupied West Bank’ to know that they had not been forgotten.

‘A big part of the reason why I wanted to do this tour in the first place is so I could stand up in stadiums like this and say two words that are very near and dear to my heart: ‘Free Palestine,” Macklemore said during the performance.

‘I want those words to be loud and clear, so that people all the way in Gaza to the occupied West Bank know that we have not forgotten about them,’ he added.

Macklemore also performed Hind’s Hall, his 2024 protest song inspired by pro-Palestinian student demonstrations and named in memory of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was killed in Gaza.

Venues object to Macklemore

Messina Touring Group, the promoter of the US leg of Sheeran’s tour, confirmed Macklemore’s removal, saying several venues had informed the organizers that they would not allow concerts to proceed with the rapper on the lineup.

‘We have been notified by venues on the upcoming US tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup, which would result in the cancellation of the tour and impact hundreds of thousands of fans,’ the promoter said in a statement to Rolling Stone.

‘After discussions with stakeholders, Macklemore will not be performing on the remaining support dates.’

Macklemore was scheduled to appear at eight of the 10 remaining US shows on Sheeran’s stadium tour, which is due to resume on September 19 in Philadelphia.

The Israeli-American Council had launched a petition calling for Macklemore to be removed from the tour following his MetLife performances. The campaign cited his longstanding criticism of Israel and his support for Palestinians.

Macklemore points to Robert Kraft

In his Instagram statement, Macklemore claimed that New England Patriots owner and billionaire Robert Kraft played a central role in his removal.

According to the rapper, Sheeran told him that Kraft had barred him from performing at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts and had contacted other stadium owners, allegedly telling them that Sheeran would not be allowed to perform at their venues if Macklemore remained on the tour.

Kraft, who owns and operates Gillette Stadium, confirmed that Macklemore would not perform at the venue, citing what he described as the rapper’s recent performances and a broader history of ‘antisemitic rhetoric and imagery.’

‘This decision is not about diminishing the suffering of innocent Palestinians or denying anyone the right to advocate on their behalf,’ Kraft said. ‘But that advocacy should not come at the expense of the Jewish community or obscure the responsibility of Hamas.’

Kraft did not directly address Macklemore’s claim that he had rallied other stadium owners against the rapper.

Macklemore has denied being antisemitic and argued that criticism of Israel’s actions should not be conflated with antisemitism.

Events marking the start of the new academic year were held on September 15 at general education schools in Khankendi city and the Khojaly and Aghdere districts.

According to the Public Relations Department of the Reconstruction, Construction and Management Service, the events highlighted state support for the development of education in the Karabakh region. Teachers and students were also wished success in the new academic year.

A total of 110 students started first grade today at School No. 4 named after Nizami Ganjavi in Khankendi, while 14 students began their education at School No. 1 in Karkijahan settlement.

In Khojaly, 11 students entered first grade at Khojaly City Secondary School No. 1, and another 11 at the Ballija village secondary school.

In Aghdere district, 14 students started first grade at the Sugovushan village secondary school, four at the Vangli village secondary school, and 15 at the Hasanriz village secondary school.

A total of 2,154 students will receive their education at these schools during the new academic year.

On September 15, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received Hakan Fidan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Trkiye.

Hakan Fidan conveyed the greetings of President of the Republic of Trkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the head of state.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the greetings and asked Hakan Fidan to convey his regards to Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well.

During the conversation, the sides commended the successful development of brotherly relations and the strategic alliance between Azerbaijan and Trkiye in all areas, expressing satisfaction with the further strengthening of cooperation based on the principle of ‘one nation, two states.’

Touching upon the importance of energy cooperation, they exchanged views on new routes to international alternative energy markets.

The logistical significance of the two countries, including their key role as a bridge between Europe and Asia, was highlighted, and the importance of coordinating activities within international organizations was noted.

The meeting also included an exchange of views on the prospects for bilateral relations, regional issues, and other matters of mutual interest.