The first issue of the specialized translation and culture journal Khazar Translation and Culture Journal for 2026, published by the Translation Studies Center of Azerbaijan University of Languages, has been released.

In the “Editor’s Page” section of the journal, the lead article titled “The New Era Requires a New Concept of Translation Culture” by the AUL Translation Studies Center has been published. In the “Ancient Roman Culture” section, readers will find selections from Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s series Moral Letters to Lucilius (translated by Hamid Mammadzadeh). The “Eastern Culture” section presents the chapter about Konya from the prominent Turkish writer Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s work Five Cities (translated by Nariman Abdulrahmanli). Japanese writer Yoko Ogawa’s story The Anatomy of a Giraffe (translated by Saday Budagli) is also featured in the “Eastern Culture” section.

In this issue, the “Pearls of World Literature” section includes an excerpt from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s famous novel The Brothers Karamazov (translated by Etimad Bashkechid), while the “European Literature” section features poems by Federico García Lorca (translated by Mahir N. Garayev). The “European Literature” section also presents Anton Chekhov’s story At the Mill (translated by Mukhtar Kazimoglu), poems by Slovenian poet Ales Steger (translated by Salam Sarvan), and Polish playwright Janusz Głowacki’s play Now You Will Sleep (translated by Yashar). In the “North American Literature” section, readers are introduced to American writer Flannery O'Connor’s story A Late Encounter with the Enemy (translated by Ofeliya Mammadova), while the “Latin American Literature” section features the continuation of Juan Gabriel Vásquez’s novel The Sound of Things Falling (translated by Saday Budagli). The “Literature of Turkic Peoples” section presents the novella Ak Arvana by prominent Kazakh writer Satimjan Sanbayev (translated by Nariman Abdulrahmanli).

This issue of the journal is also rich in materials related to the art of translation. Mexican writer and Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz’s essay Translation (translated by Nariman Abdulrahmanli), Spanish-language literature translator Gregory Rabassa’s essay “Translation as a Form of Reading and Inevitable Change” and an interview with him (translated by Tavakkul Boysunar), reflections by renowned translation scholars Lori Saint-Martin, Nikola Frelih, and Marina Ilari (translated by Nariman Abdulrahmanli), as well as researcher Sabir Aliyev’s study “The Secrets of Comparative Translation,” will be of great interest to readers and professional translators alike.

This issue also includes J. K. Rowling’s commencement speech in the “Student Audience” section; researcher Mati Osmanoglu’s article “The Policy of Cultural Genocide: From Distortion of Names to Interethnic Conflict” in the “Alternative” section; Professor Badirkhan Ahmadli’s article “A Prominent Figure of Academic Literary Studies,” dedicated to the 85th anniversary of distinguished literary scholar and master translator Mammad Gojayev in the “Anniversary” section; and Musa Garakhanli’s article “Rereading the ‘Book of Dede Korkut’ – The Azerbaijani Epic in the Light of Fuzzy Logic” in the “New Publications” section.

It should be noted that the advisor of the Khazar Translation and Culture Journal is People’s Writer and academician Kamal Abdulla, while the editor is writer and translator Etimad Bashkechid. The journal’s creative team includes Saday Budagli, Mahir N. Garayev, Nariman Abdulrahmanli, Yashar Aliyev, Salam Sarvan, and Javid Zeynalli. Its International Council includes Burak Eke (Turkey), Elizbar Javelidze (Georgia), Rolan Seisenbayev (Kazakhstan), Iskender Pala (Turkey), Daniele Franzoni (Italy), Takayuki Murakami (Japan), Ales Karlyukovich (Belarus), Anna Maria Palomares (Venezuela), Afanasi Mamedov (Russia), Supiyanat Mamayeva (Dagestan), and Orkhan Aras (Germany).