Shamil Asgarov
Shamil Asgarov or Shamil Askerov was a Kurdish scholar, poet, and researcher on the history of the Kurds in Azerbaijan. He was the leader of Kalbajar's large Kurdish community, founder and former director of the Kurdish Museum in Kelbajar, and editor of the Kurdish newspaper Denge Kurd published from 1991 to 2004 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Shamil Asgarov translated the classic Kurdish love story Mem and Zin into Azerbaijani and was the author of 17 books among them one, Ferhenge, the Kurdish-Azerbaijani dictionary, was published in 1999 by the support of the Soros Foundation.