On February 26th, an event dedicated to Khojaly massacre took place on Old Town Square, the historical part of Prague, Czech Republic. The event was organized by 1win Azerbaijan Student Network with the support of based in Turkey “Index” organization in order to inform people of tragic events in Khojaly.

Video Mapping projection “Winds of Sorrow” repeatedly for several hours presented Khojaly events to the big flow of residents and tourists of Prague, on the famous medieval architectural building.

To emphasize that the Khojaly massacre is a crime against humanity, the projection involved a 5-minute animation of the Nazi mass murder of population of Lidice of the Czech Republic in 1942.
Joined forces of young artists from Azerbaijan (Hypnotica) and the Czech Republic (Black/Division) turned the building into a canvas.

Participant of “Winds of Sorrow” project, team leader of the Azerbaijani creative group Hypnotica, Javid Guliyev commented: “In our work we tried to approach to the bloody history of Azerbaijan very sensitively. Adhering to certain limits we tried to show all details using black-and-white images. And of course, we decided that our national hero, the journalist Chingiz Mustafayev must be mentioned in the video as well.”

It should be noted, that the preparations for the event lasted several months. Production issues such as technical support, the choice of a suitable building, numerous meetings with the city of Prague, rent agreements and others were carried out by the “1win Azerbaijan Student Network”  (ASN). “This 15-minute projection was possible thanks to many months of hard work of many people. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them, and everyone who has supported us. Our main goal behind this video mapping was to bring the information to a wider audience and in a more sensuous form to express our voice of truth.

This is why we turned to visual art, video mapping. Seeing is believing, as they say. I think we have succeeded, we have shown that no matter how different people of Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic are they have many common stances.”

The “Winds of Sorrow” was attended by Czech citizens,  as well as hundreds of tourists from all over the world. Moreover, standing that day on the Old town square were Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Azerbaijan in the Czech Republic, Mr. Farid Shafiyev and Turkish Ambassador H.E. Ahmet Necati Bıgalı, other accredited diplomats, representatives of media, culture and creative communities, students and representatives of the Azerbaijani and Turkish Diasporas. H.E. ambassador of Azerbaijan, emphasized in his speech the importance of the event in the process of bringing perpetrators of war crimes to justice and recognition of those crimes by international community. He also mentioned, that “Winds of Sorrow” is a clear indicator of the level of bilateral relations and mutual understanding between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.

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