Javidan Aghayev
Baku, Azerbaijan
researcher / translator / journalist
date of residency: January 19th – April 16th 2023
cavidaga.com
Currently, his mainly focus is the Udi community – a Christian and Caucasian-speaking minority endangered in Azerbaijan – trying to raise awareness of their culture and history. He is active in several projects that try to promote peace in Azerbaijani-Armenian relations.
He studied English language and literature. He currently works mainly as a translator and journalist for BNE Intellinews. In his free time, he organizes trainings, workshops and seminars on media literacy, on how to recognize fake news. In addition, he is interested in the music scene in Azerbaijan, trying to promote and support the local scene of rock and jazz bands.
The goal of the residency
During his residency, he mainly devoted himself to the research of the Caucasian Albanian language and their writing (the language of the Udi ancestors). He collaborated with Jasmina Dum-Tragut from the University of Salzburg, Austria, and Professor Jost Gippert from the University of Hamburg, Germany, on the translation of the upcoming book Caucasian Albania. He worked on the translation of the book The Caucasian Albanian Palimpsests of Mount Sinai. Together with Malý Berlín, he prepared a discussion with Leyli Gafar about contemporary art and culture in Azerbaijan.