Held in the beautiful city of Mingachevir, Azerbaijan, from August 12-16, the Wiki Loves Mingachevir camp was an unforgettable experience in regional cooperation, knowledge sharing, and building new friendships. We represented the Kyrgyz Wikicommunity with a three-person team at this exciting event. Our participation was made possible thanks to a microgrant provided by the CEE Hub, giving us a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the bonds between our communities.
One of the highlights of the camp was the presentation on the Kyrgyz Wikicommunity, which I co-hosted with User:Ch. We shared our community’s past achievements, current general statistics, and exciting plans for the future.
The most beautiful aspect of Wikimedia events is that they offer not just a space for digital knowledge, but also for cultural exchange. To reflect this spirit, we distributed kurut (a traditional Kyrgyz dried cheese) to the participants at the end of our presentation. Tasting the kurut and the conversations it sparked added a very warm and welcoming atmosphere to the room.
For me, one of the most unforgettable parts of this camp was the opportunity to finally meet the “giant” editors from az.wikipedia.org, whose contributions I have admired for years. Meeting these hardworking people face-to-face and exchanging ideas broadened my vision immensely.
Of course, we also expanded our technical knowledge. The new technical skills we acquired were highly insightful for our future work. Throughout the camp, we received extremely useful technical training on the WikiProof tool, Category Import processes, and website management for the Wiki Loves Monuments project. It was exciting to see how much these tools will speed up the workflow in our local projects.
We didn’t just work behind closed doors; the social time we spent together was invaluable. In the evenings, we had a lot of fun and shared many laughs playing card games like Mafia and Uno. The beautiful boat trip we took on the Kura River in Mingachevir was a wonderful opportunity for everyone to relax and bond.
After the event, we spent two days exploring the city of Baku. We wandered the streets taking plenty of photos for Wikimedia Commons and made unforgettable memories having a picnic with fellow wiki editors.
A massive thank you goes to User:Aida and User:NurAy for their immense efforts in organizing this fantastic camp. We would also like to extend our deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Azerbaijan and Azersun Holding, whose hospitality and support as sponsors made this event possible.
We look forward to meeting at many more events where regional cooperation and the bonds between Turkic-speaking Wikimedians will grow even stronger!
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