Culture policy

Culture policy

Iran complains to UNESCO against Azerbaijan

14 October 2013 15:05 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Real Jafarli, Gulnar Bashirova – APA. Head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization (CHTO) Mohammad Ali Najafi sent a letter of protest to UNESCO over Azerbaijan’s removal of tiles bearing Persian inscription in the Nizami Ganjavi tomb, APA reports quoting IRIB.

The letter says that in recent years Azerbaijan has pursued the policy of undermining the Persian culture and language: “The recent fact is the removal of bearing Persian inscription in the Nizami Ganjavi tomb. Azerbaijan’s move is as an attitude in defiance of cultural considerations. We request the UNESCO, which is in charge of cultural affairs on the international scene, to take immediate measures to halt this non-cultural act and return it (Nezami Ganjavi's tomb) to its previous state.”

Regarding the issue, Director of Nizami Ganjavi tomb Gulnara Ismayilova told APA that Nizami Ganjavi tomb was renovated and the destroyed inscriptions were written in Azerbaijani: “Nothing was removed during the renovation. Complex renovation works were done in and around it. The tomb was almost reconstructed. It was the third time the complex was renovated. Most of visitors are Azerbaijanis and as they can not read in the language in which Nizami Ganjavi wrote, the poems have been translated into the Azerbaijani language. After renovation works, the poems have been written in Persian in the top and their translation in Turkish in the bottom. No changes have been made”.