Irina Bokova: “The one who respects the history is tolerant to history of other people!”

Our portal took part in the IX International festival Sharq Taronalari (“Melody of East”) which took place in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) – the city with the most ancient history. Soon we will publish a number of materials about this event.
The director general of UNESCO Irina Bokova was the guest of a festival. She graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations, was the deputy of Great people's assembly and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria. As the director general of UNESCO she was approved at General conference of this authoritative international organization in 2009.
In Samarkand Irina Bokova had many cares, but she found time to communicate to journalists:
— The festival was supported by UNESCO from the very beginning. It is our creation which developed together with Uzbekistan. This year for UNESCO is special as we celebrate the decade of the Convention on preservation of a non-material cultural heritage. For us it is very important that UNESCO not simply supplements efforts on preservation of a cultural heritage.
And Samarkand city is the certificate to it in which there are a lot of the monuments relating to a world cultural heritage. It is joyful to me to see an embodiment of our joint efforts on preservation of an originality of the Uzbek national culture within the Sharq Taronalari Festival already for the ninth time. More than 50 countries took part in it. We see this beauty, deep desire to keep traditions in many countries of the world.
The love to traditions, folklore, music made the greatest impression on me. It was felt even in a welcoming speech of the president of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov. This holiday is an enchanting spectacle of the Uzbek cultural heritage, we saw beauty and a variety of suits, dances, and all this as a whole made a holiday bright and with very deep meaning. Numerous performers from the different countries perceived the extensive and various national concert program with enthusiasm which was shown by actors from all Uzbekistan.
There is great difference between what you read or you see in photos and what you see own eyes. Samarkand is the unique city. Here, as it seems to me, are concentrated not only beautiful buildings, madrasah and mosques which were created in the period of Amir Temur's board and his successors; here all history of an Islamic civilization, achievement for which are known in the field of astronomy, philosophy, literature, history. It seems to me, it adds something very important to city history.
Certainly, I was surprised by the ancient monuments being here, but most of all I was surprised by the relation of people to traditions, to culture. In my opinion, it is the most important. I see here huge desire to keep traditions and respect for the history and culture. I consider that if people respect the history, are deeply attached to it, so they even be more tolerant to history of other people. And it is very important to develop it!
In each big city as Samarkand where so many cultural values are concentrated, is also the nuances. The condition of ancient monuments is influenced also by climatic changes, and, in a certain degree visit of tourists; also there is a natural aging and destruction of monuments. But we see what work is conducted here on restoration and preservation of these monuments. We see what efforts are applied in this direction and are ready to work further. It is impossible to tell that the issue with preservation of monuments in any culture is resolved once and for all. Therefore we are ready to work with the government, with local authorities, with experts to keep and save historical monuments from destruction for the sake of future generations.
We in UNESCO on the experience know that preservation of heritage begins with drawing up the catalog of non-material heritage. But some countries meet difficulties therefore an exchange of experience and researches are very important. There is an interaction of cultures and we observe here as separate traditions influence the neighboring countries or certain regions. We always say that there is no dominating or pure culture. Each culture in the certain state was created by charm of various cultures, especially where we place emphasis on research of the Great Silk Way. We created and we support the Institute of Research of History of Central Asia.
Questions of the international and regional cooperation are very actual; carrying out similar forums is also a platform for interaction of experts and researchers of national cultures from all over the world. In this plan the cross-cultural exchange is invaluable for us.