Azerbaijan Resurrects Farhad Statue As Part Of Agdam's Cultural Revival

Azerbaijan continues restoration and reconstruction activities in the liberated territories. Azernews reports that these activities are not limited to the construction of houses and the resettlement of IDPs uprooted from their homes due to the Armenian invasion in the 1990s. Instead, they also include the restoration of cultural monuments . One of these monuments is the statue of Farhad, created by People's Artist Tokay Mammadov in Agdam in 1959.

The statue was inspired by Farhad's love for Shirin in Nizami Ganjavi's Khosrow and Shirin. As such, for the sake of his love for Shirin, Farhad carves through the Bisutin mountain with his pickaxe.

Unfortunately, the statue shared the same fate as the city, which evoked the destruction of Hiroshima, after the invasion. As is known, Armenia did not only plunder home appliances, furniture, carpets, and all household items but also demolished all houses, buildings, and infrastructure, using the materials for construction or selling them. Agdam stands out among the cities subjected to such looting. Foreign journalists visiting the city when it was under invasion dubbed it the Hiroshima of the South Caucasus.

The statue also took its share of the destruction. Interestingly, the Armenians did not use it as construction material but rather broke it into parts, which indicates the level of hatred against Azerbaijanis.

The restoration of the statue is ongoing in Agdam, and the restoration was entrusted to People's Artist Huseyn Hagverdiyev.

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