Joint statement of Foreign Affairs Ministry and Culture Ministry of Azerbaijan

13:14 - 7.06.2018


On 4-6 June, the 7th General Assembly of the member states of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

During the session, elections of candidates were held for vacant seats in the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Seven states - Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Macedonia – have nominated for two seats in the 2nd group. As a result of an extensive propaganda campaign, Azerbaijan was elected a member of the Committee, gaining the largest number (90) of votes among the candidates in the group. Poland was elected to another place with 52 votes.

We thank all the states that supported Azerbaijan's candidacy for the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The Republic of Azerbaijan was represented in the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2010-2014, and the repeated trust shown to our country is another confirmation of the authority won by Azerbaijan at the international level, including in UNESCO.

The adoption of such an important decision for our country as a result of the support and care of the First Vice-President of Azerbaijan, head of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva, and joint activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, shows high level of development of partnership between our country and UNESCO.

Thanks to the support of Mehriban Aliyeva, over the past period 11 non-material samples of the cultural heritage of our country, including the Azerbaijani mugham, ashug art, the Azerbaijani art of playing the tar, kemancha, lavash, kelagai and others were included in the UNESCO lists.

As a member of the Committee for the period of 2018-22, Azerbaijan will contribute to the protection of intangible heritage in the world and share its rich experience, work in a spirit of cooperation with the member states, contribute to implementation of the objectives of the Convention, as well as efforts to promote the pearls of our intangible cultural heritage at the international level.