President meets with UNESCO Director General

Greeting the guest, Islam Karimov expressed conviction that her first visit to Uzbekistan as the UNESCO Director General will facilitate a closer familiarization with the country and our nation’s rich historical-cultural heritage.

Irina Bokova expressed sincere gratitude to the President of Uzbekistan for a warm welcome, congratulated on the forthcoming 22nd anniversary of national independence and wished every success in holding what is going to open in one of the world’s most ancient cities – Samarkand – the 9th international forum of arts and culture, which is organized under the UNESCO aegis and has been earning mounting acknowledgement and popularity across the globe, owing by and large to the declared noble mission of cementing the bonds of friendship and cooperation among nations and peoples as well as their spiritual mutual knowledge and understanding.

The UNESCO Director General stressed that Uzbekistan’s globally acknowledged achievements are fruits of the well thought-out wide-ranging reforms across all walks of life and stem from the national leadership’s special attention to the promotion of culture and education, to fostering the younger generation on the best national traditions and building on the universal cultural heritage.

The two sides have been successfully interacting in issues related to the revival and profound study of the spiritual legacy of Uzbekistan; they have been jointly running a diversity of programs in culture, education, science and other areas.

For the past 20 years, jubilee celebrations of our great ancestors – Amir Temur, Mirzo Ulughbek, Ahmad al-Farghoni, Imam al-Bukhari, Kamoliddin Behzod, the world famous cities – Bukhara, Khiva, Termez, Shahrisabz, Karshi, Samarkand, Marghilan, Tashkent, such invaluable literary monuments as the Alpomish, Avesto, as well as the Khorezm Academy of Mamun – have been widely commemorated at the international scale under the UNESCO auspices.

The historical-cultural buildings of Samarkand, Shahrisabz, Bukhara and Khiva are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Bukhara was announced the City of Peace in 2001 under UNESCO decision. The cultural space of Boysun, along with “shashmakom”, “katta ashula” and Navruz are included in the Representative List of the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.