User:Silk Road Media/sandbox

Marat Akhmedjanov (born 3 June, 1976, in Jizzakh, Uzbekistan) is the founder of London-based publishing house Silk Road Media, which since 2002 has brought Central Asian culture, tourism and business to the rest of the world through magazines and books in English and other languages, as well as through events. He is also the publisher of Silk Road Media’s imprint Hertfordshire Press, which translates books in Central Asian languages into English and others. He lives in Hemel Hempstead, in the United Kingdom, with his family, and divides his time between there and Central Asia.

Contents 1.	Early life and education 2.	Career 3.	Major events 4.	Book publishing

Early life and education Marat Akhmedjanov was born in 1976, in Uzbekistan, one of five children of a Tatar father and a Ukrainian mother, both construction engineers. He grew up in the town of Jizzakh during perestroika, learned English, and graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Tashkent State Institute of Architecture and Civil Engineering in 2001. He then helped set up Uzbekistan’s first modelling agency, and what became the country’s most popular lifestyle magazine. Career Partly inspired by trips abroad, Marat then set up Uzbekistan’s first English-language travel magazine, to help promote the country’s tourist offer, as well as international publishing company Silk Road Media, which celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2012. In 2005 Marat was awarded the Chevening Scholarship by the British government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, which enabled a year’s study in the UK at any institution, and he chose one of the longest-established media schools in the world, the London College of Communications, which dates back to 1870. Having amassed considerable experience of the international publishing industry and an unrivalled list of contacts within Central Asia and CIS countries as well as worldwide, Marat continued to publish magazines and books to promote investment and tourism in Central Asia, including a distribution network for foreign books, and a bookshop in Tashkent. This was soon followed by other outlets, including in Samarkand, Uzbekistan; Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan; and Almaty, Kazakhstan, selling and distributing titles from Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press; Lonely Planet; and Stacey International. [1]

Major events Marat conceived the idea for hosting the Discovery Central Asia Travel Forum, the first such event in Kyrgyzstan’s history, which took place on 28-29 April, 2012, at the Golden Dragon Hotel, Bishkek. The concept was to establish an international platform for tour operators; hotel managers; catering companies; and education institutions from Central Asia and worldwide to come together and share experiences to help better achieve the potential of the region. [2] The second Discovery Central Asia Travel Forum is being organised for later in 2013. Inspired by literature festivals that take place in other developing economies, such as Sri Lanka, Marat also came up with the idea of a similar event for Central Asia, and accordingly on 24-25 November, 2012, the Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literary Festival took place at venues across Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. It was also the first such event in the country’s history, with total attendees at more than 30 events numbering 1,300. [3] The next Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literary Festival will take place in Ganja, Azerbaijan, at the Nizami Ganjavi International Center, 3-5 May, 2013.

Book publishing Marat noticed that although there were plenty of travel writing books about Central Asia available in English, there was a dearth of books translated into English that had been originally written in Central Asian languages. In 2012 he founded Hertfordshire Press as a book publishing imprint of Silk Road Media, with the intention of bringing to international audiences what is and has been read by people from the region. In November, 2012, Marat organised the launch in London of technically the first ever translation of a book previously published in the Kyrgyz language into English: When the Edelweiss Flowers Flourish, by Soviet-era author Begenas Sartov, who was also Kyrgyzstan’s first science fiction writer. The renowned Kyrgyz author Chingiz Aitmatov had written books in Kyrgyz, though the translations into English were from the Russian.

References [1] Marat Akhmedjanov: Biography http://www.maratakhmedjanov.com/?p=51 [2] DCATF http://www.forumdiscovery.com/ [3] Open Central Asia Book Forum and Literature Festival http://www.ocabookforum.com/

Marat Akhmedjanov Born: Marat Akhmedjanov, 3 June 1976, Jizzakh, Uzbekistan Residence: Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom Ethnicity: Tatar / Ukrainian Occupation: publisher Known for: founding the only English-language print media dedicated to Central Asia Website: www.silkroadmedia.co.uk