Baku, Azerbaijan, July 13
By Samir Ali - Trend:
The Azerbaijani community of the Nagorno-Karabakh region has appealed to an international audience with a video message about Karabakh stallions, Trend reports July 13.
The video footage, prepared in English and sent to the official profiles of international organizations in social networks, says that as a result of the military aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, the Karabakh stallions, the most famous horse breed of Azerbaijan, have been for 30 years outside the environment where they lived for millennia.
The video footage, which emphasizes the thoughts from the famous work of the Greek historian Herodotus “History”, the epic “Dede Gorgud”, notes by the Russian painter Vasily Vereshchagin, tells about the past of this breed of horses.
“On the initiative of the Karabakh khan – Ibrahimkhalil, horse races were held twice a year near Shusha city in a place called “Jidir Duzu”, and travelers, historians, merchants, statesmen from various places of the world used to come to Shusha to watch the races,” says the video footage.
“There were also competitions of Chovgan, an ancient horse-riding game, resembling a world-famous polo. That is why Chovgan game on Karabakh stallions was included in the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.”
The video footage tells about the exhibitions featuring this breed of horses, as well as the Karabakh stallion, presented to the Queen of Great Britain.
It is noted that since the middle of the 19th century, the Karabakh stallions participated in global equestrian exhibitions. In exhibitions held in 1866, 1869 and 1872 in Moscow, and in 1867 in Paris, the Karabakh stallions received special awards. In 1956, an important event occurred in the history of the Karabakh breed - a Karabakh stallion “Zaman”, who first represented the ancient horse-breeding culture of Azerbaijan in the UK, was gifted to Queen Elizabeth II. It was after this that the Karabakh horses began to attract the attention of many European researchers.
The video footage also introduces the audience with the peculiarities of the Karabakh horses, emphasizing that, unlike other horse breeds, they are characterized by great devotion to their owners. These horses never left their wounded owners on the battlefield. But the most interesting fact is that these horses don’t like to live in captivity.
The appeal also underlines that the Azerbaijani state carries out various programs for breeding Karabakh horses.
The video message expresses hope that after the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Karabakh stallions will be returned to Nagorno-Karabakh region, and races will be held again at the Jidir Duzu.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.