Foundation publishes book for more than 1 million manat? – Statement

The public legal entity “Karabakh Revival Fund” allocated 1 million 178 thousand 672 manats for the writing of the book “Revival of Karabakh: from tragedy to victory.”
According to Yeniavaz.com, the work was entrusted to the company "Media Prima Advertising".
This company is not registered in Azerbaijan. Additional information about company registration and other details were not provided.
After the information became a topic of discussion on social media, detailed information was circulated stating:
“This project involves not only writing a book, but also creating a special Internet platform, publishing the book in various print and digital formats, presenting and distributing it in Azerbaijan and abroad.
In particular, the project includes the following components:
conducting relevant research in archives and more than 50 interviews in Azerbaijan and abroad;
writing a book in English;
translation of the book into Azerbaijani, Turkish and Russian languages;
publishing books in more than 6,000 special gift formats: hardcover (VIP), standard hardcover and softcover;
publication of an electronic version of the book in PDF, EPUB, MOBI, KINDLE formats;
creation of an Internet platform on which archival documents, video recordings of interviews, interactive maps and other digital content will be available and which will be linked to electronic and printed editions of the book through links, QR codes, hashtags, embedded content;
book presentations in Baku and abroad;
conducting a large-scale campaign on social networks and search services.
The initiator and author of the project is the British writer Graham Wilson, who is closely familiar with the realities of Azerbaijan and the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict:
To begin work on the creation of the book, an agreement was signed with the company "Media Prima Advertising" headed by G. Wilson, who initiated and authored this complex project. The contract was concluded in full compliance with the requirements of the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan "On Public Procurement" by providing services from a single source (taking into account the urgent need to write and distribute the book and the fact that the copyright for this project belongs to the company "Media Prima Advertising").
Since the company "Media Prima Advertising" is a resident of another country, in addition to the above work, the contract price (AZN 1,178,672.00) includes value added tax (18%) and withholding tax (10%)".


Elnur Ali