Western Azerbaijan Community

On holding the 140th anniversary of the Iravan Teachers’ Seminary

Order of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

The city of Iravan gained fame as one of the major scientific, educational, and cultural centers where the indigenous Azerbaijani population historically lived. An extremely rich literary and cultural environment belonging to the Azerbaijani people has formed in the city. After the inclusion of the Iravan Khanate into Tsarist Russia, this environment itself played an important role in the fact that special attention was paid to secular education here. In the second half of the XIX century, the enlightenment movement gained wide scope in the South Caucasus. It was at this time that a new type of school, providing secular education, was opened in the region: the Iravan Teachers’ Seminary.

Despite the fact that the Iravan Teachers’ Seminary, which began functioning in November 1881, was created in the interests of the tsarist government in the region and trained for almost 40 years by highly qualified national teachers with a modern worldview and thinking, it made a commendable contribution to the preservation of In Iravan Mahal, where Azerbaijanis were the majority, the traditional content and activity of social, literary, scientific, and cultural life have written memorable pages in the annals of our pedagogical thought. One of the first teachers of the seminary was the outstanding educator Firudin bey Kocharli, who carried out extensive cultural and educational work. Among the graduates of the seminary were many famous personalities of our people and outstanding representatives  of the intelligentsia of their time.

Governed by Clause 32 of Article 109 of the Constitution of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in order to ensure the holding of the 140th anniversary of the Iravan Teachers’ Seminary, I hereby resolve as follows:

1. The Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall repare and implement an action plan related to the 140th anniversary of the Iravan Teachers’ Seminary.

2. The Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan shall resolve issues arising from this Order.

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, December 29, 2021.