Azerbaijan hosts conference on protection of historical, religious heritage PHOTO

Azerbaijan has hosted a conference on modern approaches to the protection and restoration of religious and cultural heritage, the role of religious communities in safeguarding such sites, and the importance of restored historical and architectural monuments in urban development across the territories liberated from occupation.

Titled Protection of Historical and Religious Monuments: Challenges and Prospects, the event was jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture and the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

A video was shown ahead of the official opening ceremony.

The opening ceremony was attended by Chairman of the State Committee for Work with Religious Organisations Ramin Mammadov, Minister of Culture Adil Karimli, Rector of the Azerbaijan University of Architecture and Construction Gulchohra Mammadova and other officials.

The speakers addressed existing practices, challenges ahead and new opportunities in protecting historical and religious monuments. They also presented statistics on shrines and cultural heritage sites destroyed as a result of what was described as Armenian vandalism in Western Azerbaijan and the territories liberated from occupation, while stressing the importance of strengthening cooperation between state institutions and research organisations in this area.

The event featured panel sessions titled Protection of Cultural and Religious Heritage: Law, Practice and Opportunities and The Role of Historical and Religious Spaces in Promoting Traditions of Tolerance and Multiculturalism.

The first panel was moderated by Aqil Shirinzade, Rector of the Azerbaijan Institute of Theology and Associate Professor of Theology.

Speakers included Deputy Minister of Culture Saadat Yusifova, Farhad Guliyev, Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS), and Jabi Bahramov, Head of the History of Western Azerbaijan Department at the A.A. Bakikhanov Institute of History and Ethnology of ANAS.

The final panel session focused on the role of religious and cultural heritage in promoting traditions of tolerance and multiculturalism. Participants put forward proposals concerning the protection of cultural heritage sites, the reading and study of stone inscriptions, and their preservation for future generations.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov