As known, 2021 was declared the "Year of Nizami Ganjavi" by the order of President Ilham Aliyev on the occasion of the 880th anniversary of Nizami Ganjavi, the most famous figure of medieval literature in Azerbaijan. On December 23, the "Audiobook" project dedicated to Nizami's rich heritage was presented at the Baku Book Center at the initiative of Azercell Telecom.
“By digitizing the works of Azerbaijani authors, Azercell aims to expand the culture of reading, especially among young generation, and make the cultural heritage of our people more accessible and user friendly to modern readers around the world through digital tools. With this in mind, Azercell's next initiative in the development of the e-library was the presentation of Nizami's works in audio book format in five languages via an international electronic platform”, Nigar Shikhlinskaya, Head of Media Relations at Azercell, noted while speaking about the project. 
In general, under the project supported by Azercell, excerpts from more than 100 selected philosophical and lyrical works of Nizami Ganjavi were compiled in the audio book format. The poems were narrated in Azerbaijani, Russian, English, French and Turkish in the accompaniment of ancient stringed instruments. Audio materials with original background music are uploaded to the international “Bookmate” application provided exclusively by Azercell.  
The project supported by Azercell also included a book of comics for two works of Nizami Ganjavi, namely "The story of the Brickmaker" and "The Story of fair Nushiravan and vizier". The comic book "The story of the Brickmaker" prepared in a new format was also presented to the participants at the ceremony.  
Rafael Huseynov, MP and Director of the Nizami Ganjavi Museum in Azerbaijan, Akif Marifli, Head of the Book Circulation and Publishing Department of the Ministry of Culture, as well as Teymur Najafzadeh, Head of the Colorit Creative Workshop also made a speech at the presentation ceremony. 
The narrators and authors Khazar Suleymanli and Samad Hatamov performed some parts of Ganjavi's immortal works in the artistic part of the presentation. Afterwards, the performance of vocalist Tomris was greeted with applause by the audience. The ceremony also included a scene from the ballet "Leyli and Majnun" performed by students of the Baku Academy of Choreography.
It is worth noting that “Bookmate”, exclusively presented by Azercell, is a rich electronic library that contains more than 4 million e-books and audio books in various genres, available even offline, regardless of location and device used. Earlier, on the occasion of the 650th anniversary of Imadeddin Nasimi, Azercell selected ghazals of the poet, as well as 10 chapters of "Koroglu" epos, various essays and scientific works on the history of Karabakh, as well as works of different classical and modern authors in audiobook format and uploaded them to the “Bookmate” platform with the aim to promote national literature in digital content in the country and beyond. 
For more information on “Bookmate”, please visit us at https://www.azercell.com/en/personal/digital-solutions/bookmate.html