Aravot.am asked Sedrak Mamulyan, the Chairman of Development and Preservation of Armenian Culinary Traditions NGO, how he estimates the move of Baku for preparing document to include the tradition for the preparation of dolma in the UNESCO World Intangible Heritage Culture, and Azerbaijani Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abulfaz Garayev, argues that “dolma belongs to the entire Turkic world.” In response, Sedrak Mamulyan said, “UNESCO is not taking ordinary papers, it takes only green bills and soon Azerbaijan will go to UNESCO with green bills with images of Franklin and others.” To our question of what should the Armenian side do in this case, the Chairman of Development and Preservation of Armenian Culinary Traditions NGO said, “We just need to stand up for our culture, which requires spending money, there is no other way. No one doubts that dolma is an Armenian dish, even the UNESCO decision-makers but UNESCO is UNESCO for taking money from here and there to announce something. Incidentally, even by their Charter, they do not accept a recipe as such that this recipe is Turkish, Georgian or Azeri. They take the method of preparation and maybe will find some manners and modify to Azerbaijani… Our NGO has adopted a form of combat and each year we organize a Day of Dolma. No coincidence that Azerbaijanis have made a noise these days because we are planning to organize the Day of Dolma for the sixth time in the area of Musa Mountain on May 21.
The first celebration of Dolma festival was in 2011 which coincided with the opening of Azerbaijan’s the so-called Academy of Sciences when Aliyev announced about allegedly cultural expansion by Armenians, including addressing dolma. In that very year, we organized the first Dolma Festival which was covered by CNN for two days and even now, you can see the video on YouTube. All this brought to convulsive movements with Azerbaijanis. It is natural that Azerbaijan should be concerned about it and make some steps to show its being allegedly indigenous and its sedentary tenor of life. For example, they are silent about basturma because it is actually a food typical to nomad, they do not do anything about it and want to advance those food that are related to agriculture, nature and sedentary life.”
Sedrak Mamulyan added that initially the stance of their organization was as follows: “Discussing our cultural heritage in the framework of any organization, be it UNESCO, the UN or a cosmic structure, is wrong for us. Our cultural heritage is ours and that’s it. Especially in the case of UNESCO, which is an organization like our organization, simply a little more cunning and corrupt.” He also etymologized the word dolma, saying that toli means a grape leaf. “For example, Dalma gardens were vineyards and there is no intention of a historian or a chef to be called so. It was called so and has reached us, we also have other evidence but I do not think it’s worth citing for a vagabond and wandering race. Let them prove it,” concluded Sedrak Mamulyan.
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Gohar HAKOBYAN
