Dedicated to blessed memory...

Today is 9th of May, the day when the World War II ended in 1945.

In year 2007 at the age of Internet and comfort it is not easy to imagine the war that was going on for 4 years and took the lives of more than 20 million people. (according to different sources this figure is from 20 to 40 million). Just looking around and counting 10 people might give some perspective of what 20 million (!) means…

Today is a public holiday in Azerbaijan also and we are paying tribute to everyone who gave his life in that war. There were no military operations at that time in Azerbaijan because it was highly defended as a petrol supplier to all Soviet arms. Nevertheless more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis went to the front and never returned home.

Today’s post is dedicated to veterans and every victim of World War II, the victims and veterans of Azerbaijan’s current Nagorny Karabakh conflict and all the other people that sacrifice their lives for peace on the Earth.

I will mention one of the heroes of Sheki today.

Ahmadiyya Jabrailov, the late veteran of World War II from Sheki fought all 4 years in the war as a brave partisan. He fought together with Charles de Gaulle, 18th President of France, and as Sheki people love to give nicknames, after Ahmadiyya returned from World War II and until his last day his nickname was De Gaulle Ahmad. French awarded him with an order of the Hero of France.

The painting of Ahmadiyya Jabrailov that you see on this post is painted by National Artist of Azerbaijan, now the late Jahangir Rustamov, uncle of my husband.

You can find the photo of Ahmadiyya Jabrailov here.