The Translation Centre under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Azerbaijan Republic is one of think-tank bodies of the country. AzTC attracts attention with its constructive activities.

In her interview to SalamNews Agency Afag Masud, AzTC's Director, a notable author and translator, touched uopn some interesting points in this creative field of activity. We introduce her interview to your attention.

"Of course, creation of this organization was the demand of the time; the dire state in language and translation industry is undeniable. After gaining independence, the made up Azerbaijan's Soviet educating traditions were destroyed, but the new ones were not formed. The dire state of the translation industry was observed not only in film dubbing or in television announcers' speech. Our organization is titled as Translation Centre, but according to our Regulation it is an executive body which centralizes translation work, manages socio-political, scientific, technical, literary and cultural ties from the point of view of language and translation, oversees the standard of translation in the republic and improves its quality. We mobilized all our force to fulfil these duties. We move forward to achieve our target with all our products: Khazar World Literature Magazine, Aydin Yol Newspaper, translation of works that are distinguished with high quality, Open Book e-library and website. This is the perfect use of the Azerbaijani language and the formation of professional criteria on translation and cultural adaptation.

We haven't yet received government order. The thematic plan of translation works is approved at the AzTC Scientific-Literary Board. Up today AzTC has mainly focused on fiction, scientific literature and recollections. AzTC is planning to seriously deal with compiling dictionaries from upcoming year.  Presently there are huge gaps in this sphere.  "The Spelling Dictionary of the Azerbaijani Language" is considered to be the passport of our mother tongue and you see how badly it is compiled. Our first project in this aspect is to compile an authoritative dictionary. Later on we are planning to compile terminological dictionaries and glossaries. We are working on books and dictionaries in various formats for children such as encyclopedias, adapted editions, etc.  AzTC has prepared  a two-volume series entitled Anthology of Modern Azerbaijan Literature (Prose and Poetry). The book will be published in many world languages including Azerbaijani. Modern Azerbaijan Literature has never been published in this format up today. At the moment we are translating the authors that have been included in the anthology.  The Russian version of the book is almost ready. Word-by-word translation of the authors into English, Persian, Turkish and Spanish was started. Literary translation of the authors will be continued with related translation structures of given foreign countries. We wish to introduce our literature at a top professional level. Selection of authors is very significant in this aspect. The selected authors must be interesting for readers. Another main factor is how to introduce the book to readers of a given foreign country. I would like to state that it is meticulous work."