On February 21, a commemorative event will be held in connection with the 28th anniversary of the Khojaly tragedy. The event will take place in the Presidential Forest, "Khojaly 613" Grove, Israel.

The General Director of the Israel-Azerbaijan AzIz International Association Lev Spivak told this to STMEGI.

According to him, since 2008, the AzIz Association has been holding events in memory of the tragic events in Khojaly.

“This year several deputies of the Knesset and Milli Majlis have already confirmed their participation in the event. The event will be attended by the Knesset deputies (Alex Kushnir and Mark Efraimov) and the Mili Majlis deputy (Rauf Aliyev), representatives of municipalities and public organizations. In addition, this year the guests of the event will be the director of the Baku Book Center Gunel Anargizi and the Azerbaijani poetess Leyla Begim, who lives in the Czech Republic,” L.Spivak noted.

The AzIz International Association regularly holds scientific and practical conferences, organizes photo exhibitions and viewing documentaries, invites scientists, public figures of journalists to familiarize the Israelis and the world community with the events in Khojaly, the AzIz general director said.

“A few years ago, the AzIz international association, with the support of the K.K.L National Jewish Fund and with the participation of Knesset and Milli Majlis deputies, laid a new grove - 613 trees were planted in memory of the innocent victims of the tragic night. I want to note that for the first time in the history of Israel, trees were planted in memory of non-Jews. This is a very important milestone in Azerbaijani-Israeli relations and it was especially noted at the 120th anniversary of the Jewish National Fund, which is engaged in tree planting in Israel. Since then, events take place in this grove every year. People come from all over the country, of course, mainly immigrants from Azerbaijan. Journalists, representatives of public organizations, and politicians always take part in events,” L.Spivak noted.

In addition, the general director of AzIz said that the organization he leads is trying to give the event some new form.

“We have held various conferences more than once and always try, except for the forest itself, to hold somewhere else. This time there will be a presentation of the book "Scream" - the brainchild of the joint work of two remarkable writers - Gunel Anargizi and Leyla Begim. The book includes Gunel’s Karabakh stories and Leyla Begim’s poems dedicated to Karabakh. The presentation will take place on February 20 at the Russian Library in Jerusalem. It is the largest library in the Middle East. We have been successfully cooperating with it for many years, so we decided to present this book there and donate it to the library,” L.Spivak said.

News.Az