Presentation of files, book and disk by the project “Ashug art and holiday Novruz”

Assembly Hall
Organizers: Department of International relations of Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan

On 28 September 2009, Azerbaijan’s ashug music and Novruz holiday were included in UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage at its Session IV, held in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. For this occasion, on 29 March 2009, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan, together with the French organisation “Maison des Cultures du Monde”, held a number of events. For example, in the Louvre Museum, Paris, there was a concert of ashug music. A CD dedicated to the art of ashug was also released in cooperation with that organisation. On the following day, in the Conservatoire Hall in Strasbourg, there was another concert of ashug music. We should note that our ashugs also performed on stages in Great Britain, in November of this year, in cities such as London, Brighton, York and Newcastle. In Azerbaijan at the same time, a number of roundtables were held.Novruz has been our nation’s favourite holiday since olden times. We are pleased to note that the holiday is celebrated in several countries of the East. In this connection, Azerbaijan, India, the Iranian Islamic Republic, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Turkey were included in UNESCO’s list. In parallel, a number of events were held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in order to realise an international day of celebration of Novruz.

In 2010, a file on the carpet art of Azerbaijan will be submitted to UNESCO’s representative list of cultural heritage.

A presentation was held in the Museum Centre, at 12:00 on 3 December 2009, of files, a book and a CD on the ‘Ashug Art’ project and ‘Novruz Bayram’. Participating in the event were representatives of State institutions, workers from NANA, the intelligentsia and the ambassadors of a number of foreign countries.