Uzeyir Hajibeyli, the founder of the professional musical art of Azerbaijan, is a person who played an important role in the development of not only national music, but also the general Turkic culture. The performance of his operetta “Arshin mal alan” and opera “Koroglu” in theaters of different countries, especially in Kyrgyzstan, is a clear example of cultural integration.

These words were said by Academician Abdildajan Akmataliyev, Director of the Institute of Language and Literature named after Ch.Aitmatov of the Kyrgyz National Academy of Sciences at his speech in the International Scientific Symposium “From Ashiq Alasgar to Uzeyir Hajibeyli: Cultural Codes of the Turkic World”. Academician Abdildajan Akmataliyev said that the operetta “Arshin Mal Alan” was first staged at the Jalal-Abad Theater in 1933 and quickly became an important event in the development of Kyrgyz theatrical art. The synthesis of national musical style of the work with European operetta traditions aroused great interest among audiences and it was returned to the stage many times in the following decades.

The scientist also noted that the synthesis of the Azerbaijani mugham style and the traditions of the heroic epic with the principles of the classical European opera in the Opera “Koroglu”, presented in Bishkek within the framework of the TURKSOY project in 2009, aroused great interest among Kyrgyz spectators.

Academician Abdildajan Akmataliyev mentioned that the works of the great composer Uzeyir Hajibeyli contribute to the formation of common cultural memory among the Turkic peoples, the development of artistic and aesthetic taste of the younger generation, and the strengthening of the all-Turkic solidarity.