Azerbaijan's first lady, UNESCO director-general visit International Mugham Center in Baku

Azerbaijan's first lady, president of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, UNESCO and ISESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova visited the International Mugham Center in Baku on July 29.

The UNESCO chief was told the Center was built on the initiative of first lady Mehriban Aliyeva with an aim to preserve and popularize Azerbaijan's national and spiritual values.

The Center's foundation stone was laid in 2005, and the ceremony was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, first lady Mehriban Aliyeva and former UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura.

The total area of the three-storied Center is 7.5 square meters. The Azerbaijani first lady and the UNESCO chief viewed the Center. They listened to performance of young mugham singers here. Mugham was incorporated into the Representative List of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Afterwards, Mehriban Aliyeva and Irina Bokova visited the construction site of State Museum of Azerbaijan Carpet and Applied Arts.

Minister of culture and tourism Abulfaz Garayev told them of the construction work. The building of the State Museum of Azerbaijan Carpet and Applied Arts is being constructed as part of a joint project by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Ministry of Culture and Tourism and UNESCO.

The museum would appear in the form of a rolled up carpet. The facility will create 200 jobs.

The Azerbaijani first lady and the UNESCO Director General also viewed a draft project of the State Museum of Musical Culture which will be located in "The Venetian town". They were told the construction work would start here next year.


/AzerTAc/