Mehriban Aliyeva attended the ceremony devoted to the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s membership in UNESCO in Paris

On June 18^th, a ceremony devoted to the 20^th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s membership in UNESCO took place at the headquarters of the organization in Paris.

Azerbaijan’s First Lady, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva attended the ceremony.

First, Mehriban Aliyeva met with UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova. At the meeting, it was mentioned that very fruitful partnership relations have been built between Azerbaijan and UNESCO for these 20 years, and that these relations will continue and develop further.

Discussions were held at the meeting on future cooperation between the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, headed by Mehriban Aliyeva, and UNESCO, and inclusion of more cultural monuments of Azerbaijan on the organization’s list of cultural heritage, as well as the meeting of UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee devoted to intangible cultural heritage to be held in December this year in Baku.

Then a Framework Agreement was signed between the Government of Azerbaijan and UNESCO on cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and communication. On the Azerbaijani side, the document was signed by Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev and, on UNESCO side, by Director General Irina Bokova.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova thanked President Ilham Aliyev for the years-long cooperation between the headed by her organization and Azerbaijan, and emphasized the support provided by First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva to preservation of cultural heritage. The Director General underlined that the document signed was a significant step forward towards establishment of a fund to support joint endeavours of Azerbaijan and UNESCO in education, culture and preservation of the environment.

Then familiarization with a photo stand comprised of stone statues found on the territory of Azerbaijan took place.

Then UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva and Director General Irina Bokova attended the ceremony of presenting a stone horse and a stone ram by the Republic of Azerbaijan to UNESCO on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of our country’s accession to this respected organization.

Placed at UNESCO headquarters’ yard, these statues will permanently be exhibited here. These monuments relate to the 12-13^th centuries and were found in Ashaghy Ayibli village of Tovuz district. In general, stone horse and ram figures related to wide-spread types of our traditional folk art and national stone plastics art. Such statues show that both horse and ram had been accepted by our people as serious and long-lasting symbols.

Attendees of the ceremony were distributed books reflecting stone statues found in Azerbaijan.

UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova addressed the ceremony:

- Your Excellency, Azerbaijan’s First Lady, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva.

Esteemed Minister Abulfas Garayev, respected guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Today we have gathered here to mark the 20^th anniversary of Azerbaijan’s accession to UNESCO. First of all I wanted to inform you of this nice news. We have just signed an agreement on creation of a 5million Manat-trust with a view to strengthening our cooperation and raising its level further. And now we are participating in the inauguration of these nice statues as a symbol of our partnership and friendship. Dear Friends, UNESCO is your home and, as for other countries, it is also Azerbaijan’s home. I’m greatly honoured to welcome here Her Excellency, Azerbaijan’s First Lady. A few weeks earlier, I participated in the opening of the 2^nd International Forum for intercultural dialogue on the theme of “Peaceful Coexistence in a Multicultural World” in Azerbaijan. Our intensive discussions covered very pressing challenges of our time. Late in this year, we are going to hold the 8^th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Baku. All these show the scale of our cooperation and high attention shown by the Azerbaijani leadership to popularization of UNESCO ideas. Ladies and gentlemen, the Azerbaijani leadership is effectively using UNESCO as a centre for exchange, science and art to promote this country’s old history, which has direct relation with the Silk Way.  

Richness of this country has found its reflection in UNESCO’s history of Central Asia civilizations talking of continuous dialogue among cultures. This has found its reflection in the walls of the Old City, which has been entered in UNESCO’s World Heritage List. We are witnessing this also in matchless intangible heritage of Azerbaijan. It includes ancient carpet making art and Novruz Holiday, which is celebrated also in Turkey, Iran, India, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. UNESCO’s cooperation with Azerbaijan is rich and large-scaled. Today we strengthened this cooperation too.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me express my sincere thanks to President Ilham Aliyev and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva for their contribution to the development of our relations. I would like to specifically thank dear Mehriban Aliyeva for her contribution to the development of education, in particular, education for girls, and her initiatives.  I would like to mention the financing of the construction of a girls’ school in Pakistan. There were also other significant initiatives, and 132 new schools have been constructed in a number of regions of your country within the framework of the project “New schools for the new Azerbaijan”. From this standpoint, I would like to note also the dialogue of civilizations, music education, and to highly assess your country’s loyal attitude towards developing education for girls. In the statues we inaugurate today, I see the representation of your country’s spirit. They are expressing the form of art created in the middle ages and conveyed from generation-to generation in oral form. I would say they picture the cosmography bringing peoples and religions, the worlds of human beings and animals together. For this donation, I would like to express my deep thanks to the Government of Azerbaijan. I would like to once more specifically thank Azerbaijan’s First Lady and the people of Azerbaijan.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in May, UNESCO marked the 900^th jubilee of great Azerbaijani poet Mahsati Ganjavi, who was born in Ganja city. Mahsati Ganjavi used to write poems about human spirit’s merits. I think her poems’ philosophy is the essence of a dialogue for peace, as well as UNESCO’s spirit.

Thank you for your attention.

Then Mehriban Aliyeva made a speech at the ceremony.