First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended ceremony dedicated to Azerbaijan's 20th anniversary of UNESCO membership - PHOTOS

A celebrative event on the 20th anniversary of Azerbaijan`s membership of UNESCO has been held at the organization`s headquarters in Paris.

First Lady of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO and ISESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva attended the event.

Azerbaijani first lady Mehriban Aliyeva met UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

They spoke of UNESCO-Azerbaijan cooperation, and exchanged views on prospects for cooperation between the organization and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, particularly including Azerbaijan`s cultural monuments in UNESCO list of cultural heritage, as well as a meeting of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage to be held in Baku in December.

As part of the meeting, a framework agreement on cooperation in the fields of education, science, culture and communication between Azerbaijan and UNESCO was signed. The document was signed by Azerbaijani minister of culture and tourism Abulfas Garayev and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova.

The UNESCO Director-General expressed her gratitude to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for the long lasting cooperation between the organization and Azerbaijan. She stressed Mehriban Aliyeva`s support of efforts to protect cultural heritage. She also underlined the role of the agreement in establishment of a joint foundation supporting Azerbaijan`s and UNESCO`s attempts in the fields of education, culture and environmental protection. Abulfas Garayev praised Azerbaijan-UNESCO cooperation in social fields.

Then they viewed photos of stone monuments found in the Azerbaijani regions.

Mehriban Aliyeva and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova then attended a ceremony to present stone monuments of a horse and a ram to UNESCO. The monuments that will be permanently exhibited here date back to the 12th-13th centuries and were discovered in Azerbaijan`s Tovuz region.

Addressing at the event, Irina Bokova spoke of the signing of an agreement on establishment of an AZN5 million trust between Azerbaijan and UNESCO. She thanked Mehriban Aliyeva for her assistance in establishing a girls` school in Pakistan.

Delivering a speech at the event, Azerbaijani first lady Mehriban Aliyeva hailed the exhibition of the stone monuments in the yard of the UNESCO headquarters. She expressed confidence the agreement would contribute to developing the Azerbaijan-UNESCO relations.

/AzerTAc/