The next session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage will take place in Azerbaijan in December 2013. The UNESCO website informs about that. Whereas Azerbaijan destroyed khachkars in Jugha, which hasn’t been adequately condemned by the international community and organizations, nor has Azerbaijan publicly admitted its guilt. www.aravot.am inquired of Kristina Mehrabekyan, the secretary of the Armenian National Commission for UNESCO, why the Armenian delegation, which included, besides her, Arev Samuelyan, the Deputy Minister of Culture, hadn’t responded in any way. Ms. Mehrabyan replied over the phone that she wasn’t entitled to give interviews, then added: “The Armenian delegation cannot object to or not accept such a thing, because it is a procedural issue that is decided by the UNESCO headquarters.”
Let us remind that on December 5, during the 7th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, the application Performance of the Armenian epic of ‘Daredevils of Sassoun’ was considered and inscribed into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Moreover, only 36 out of 70 applications got an approval of experts and were included in the session’s agenda. The tar was also included in the same list as an Azerbaijani musical instrument, which, according to www.panorama.am, has caused Iranian musicologists discontent. They described it as a theft committed by Azerbaijanis and complained where the Iranian delegates had been during the discussion.
By the way, last June, the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Armenia, and the Armenian Embassy to France organized an exhibition called The Art of Khachkars: Armenian Khachkars in cooperation with UNESCO. The directorate of UNESCO removed the explanatory captions under the photos, leaving only the khachkars’ dates of creation. The Armenian delegation insisted, in response, the UNESCO flag was taken out of the hall, as a result, the leadership didn’t come to the opening ceremony.
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Earlier, in 2010, Azerbaijan filed a complaint with regard to recognizing Armenian khachkars as intangible cultural heritage, claiming that khachkars are “not only Armenian.”
Gohar HAKOBYAN
