Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Alfred Kocharyan received today General Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province Ahmad Hamzehzadeh, the ministry said in a news release.
During the meeting Deputy Minister Kocharyan said that the friendly relations between Armenia and Iran continue for centuries, by strengthening and developing with time.
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“The ongoing and future programs are the evidence of this. Particularly, there is an experience of preparing joint applications to UNESCO in the field of cultural heritage. At the moment we have an ongoing application. The Blue Mosque in downtown Yerevan is a good example of preservation of heritage”, he said.
Touching upon the cooperation in tourism sector, Alfred Kocharyan stated that Iranian citizens capture the 3rd place with visits to Armenia. He said that exhibitions also contribute to this, which the sides are participating on mutual principle.
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The Deputy Minister assured that the Armenian side is ready to discuss the possibility of implementing new projects and initiatives.
In his turn the Iranian official said that the close ties between Iran and Armenia have a history of centuries. He stated that one of the priorities of the new government of Iran is to develop the relations with neighbors, and for that the bordering provinces serve as a linking hub. Ahmad Hamzehzadeh said their province is implementing numerous effective programs with neighboring countries. He said there are around 4000 cultural heritage objects in the province, 4 of which have got a world conformation, including 5 churches.
“We carry out the preservation of all these churches in cooperation with the Armenian community of Tabriz, and this is a vivid evidence how important the Armenian cultural heritage is for us.
No matter whether they are Armenian or Iranian, these monuments belong to the whole world”, he said.
He also proposed to organize mutual visits to the churches of the two countries that got world confirmation aimed at developing tourism. Ahmad Hamzehzadeh thanked for the preservation of Iranian literature in Yerevan’s Matenadaran, as well as the Blue Mosque. He proposed to jointly achieve the world confirmation of the Mosque.
In his turn Deputy Minister Alfred Kocharyan thanked for the preservation of Armenian culture in Iran. “Cultural heritage has no nationality, it is universal and belongs to all of us,” he stated.
