Ancient national carpets smuggled out of Azerbaijan found in Ukraine

Azerbaijani national carpets, woven in Guba, Shirvan, Karabakh, and Derbent regions some 100-150 years ago, were found in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, Report informs with reference to a report by Baku TV's Eastern European bureau, shot on the basis of the collection of carpets discovered in Vinnytsia.

Thus, Seymur Abushov, who hails from Azerbaijan, has created a collection in this city for several years by collecting historical carpets belonging to Turkic-speaking countries, mainly ancient Azerbaijani ones. The collection includes historical Azerbaijani carpets found in Germany, France, Ireland, Portugal, the United States, Canada, and in a number of other countries. They were mainly smuggled out of the country during the revolutions in tsarist Russia at the outset of the XX century, and some during the first Karabakh war.

Among the carpets are examples that were smuggled out of Karabakh to Europe, where they were presented as Armenian ones. They were bought back and their national belonging was reinstated and included in the collection. Seymur Abushov's brother, Teymur Abushov is a member of the local Rada (parliament) in Vinnytsia, and the brothers are active in public affairs.