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AZERIS CALL FOR TURKISH, IRANIAN MOSQUES TO SOUND KARABAKHI CALL TO PRAYER
Today's Zaman, Turkey
February 22, 2013
A group of Azerbaijani officials have staged a rally in the Azerbaijani
capital calling for Muslim countries, particularly Turkey, Iran
and Pakistan, to recite the Karabakhi adhan, or call to prayer,
recorded before the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, in their mosques
to commemorate the Khojaly martyrs killed by Armenian armed forces
on Feb. 26, 1992.
Azerbaijanis including deputies and theologians took part in a rally
called 'Towards Nagorno-Karabakh: Voice of Justice,' which appears to
be part of the 'Justice for Khojaly' campaign, in Baku late Thursday.
Moving to Agdam, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh that was partially occupied
by Armenian armed forces in a bloody war in the region in the early
1990s, the Azerbaijani intellectuals then called out the Karabakhi
adhan for the Friday prayer.
Adhan is recited melodiously and loudly by the mosque's muezzin to
call Muslims to pray five times a day. Calls to prayer in different
Islamic states follow the same rules, differing largely by their
melodies. As such, the Karabakhi adhan is recited under the melody
of Mugham, a composition style of Azerbaijani traditional musical.
After the Friday prayer, the demonstrators came together for a meeting
staged in a village outside Agdam called Cemenli, located three
or four kilometers from the borderline established under Armenia's
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In an address at the meeting, Elsad Iskenderov, chairman of the State
Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said
the Karabakhi adhan should be played from all mosques in Azerbaijan
each Friday.
Echoing Iskenderov, Elmaddin Mehdiyev, Istanbul representative of the
Justice for Khojaly campaign, said while in comments to Today's Zaman
that the Muslim call to prayer should be recited in every Azerbaijani
mosque until Nagorno-Karabakh is liberated. ' It has been 20 years
since the adhan was last recited in Muslim lands in Nagorno-Karabakh,
and it is important to reach out to the world about it. For this
reason we have sounded the call to prayer in our mosque closest to
Nagorno-Karabakh,' Mehdiyev said, urging Muslim states to play the
Karabakhi adhan over the loudspeakers in their mosques annually on
Feb. 26 to commemorate the Azerbaijani martyrs.
It has been more than two decades since the end to diplomatic
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia after the latter occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan,
and seven other adjacent Azerbaijani territories in the country as
a result of undeclared war that started between the two neighboring
post-Soviet countries in 1988-1994. Some 30,000 were killed between
both sides and hundreds fled their hometowns before a truce was signed
in 1994, although there has still not been a peace treaty.
Today's Zaman, Turkey
February 22, 2013
A group of Azerbaijani officials have staged a rally in the Azerbaijani
capital calling for Muslim countries, particularly Turkey, Iran
and Pakistan, to recite the Karabakhi adhan, or call to prayer,
recorded before the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh, in their mosques
to commemorate the Khojaly martyrs killed by Armenian armed forces
on Feb. 26, 1992.
Azerbaijanis including deputies and theologians took part in a rally
called 'Towards Nagorno-Karabakh: Voice of Justice,' which appears to
be part of the 'Justice for Khojaly' campaign, in Baku late Thursday.
Moving to Agdam, a city in Nagorno-Karabakh that was partially occupied
by Armenian armed forces in a bloody war in the region in the early
1990s, the Azerbaijani intellectuals then called out the Karabakhi
adhan for the Friday prayer.
Adhan is recited melodiously and loudly by the mosque's muezzin to
call Muslims to pray five times a day. Calls to prayer in different
Islamic states follow the same rules, differing largely by their
melodies. As such, the Karabakhi adhan is recited under the melody
of Mugham, a composition style of Azerbaijani traditional musical.
After the Friday prayer, the demonstrators came together for a meeting
staged in a village outside Agdam called Cemenli, located three
or four kilometers from the borderline established under Armenia's
occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh.
In an address at the meeting, Elsad Iskenderov, chairman of the State
Committee on Religious Associations of the Republic of Azerbaijan, said
the Karabakhi adhan should be played from all mosques in Azerbaijan
each Friday.
Echoing Iskenderov, Elmaddin Mehdiyev, Istanbul representative of the
Justice for Khojaly campaign, said while in comments to Today's Zaman
that the Muslim call to prayer should be recited in every Azerbaijani
mosque until Nagorno-Karabakh is liberated. ' It has been 20 years
since the adhan was last recited in Muslim lands in Nagorno-Karabakh,
and it is important to reach out to the world about it. For this
reason we have sounded the call to prayer in our mosque closest to
Nagorno-Karabakh,' Mehdiyev said, urging Muslim states to play the
Karabakhi adhan over the loudspeakers in their mosques annually on
Feb. 26 to commemorate the Azerbaijani martyrs.
It has been more than two decades since the end to diplomatic
relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia after the latter occupied
Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian-populated enclave in Azerbaijan,
and seven other adjacent Azerbaijani territories in the country as
a result of undeclared war that started between the two neighboring
post-Soviet countries in 1988-1994. Some 30,000 were killed between
both sides and hundreds fled their hometowns before a truce was signed
in 1994, although there has still not been a peace treaty.