INTER-CULTURAL DIALOGUE IN THE GRAVEYARD OF CULTURES
Vardan Grigoryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
04 Dec 08
Armenia

The two-days International Conference "Inter-Cultural Dialogue as
Basis of Stable Development and Peace in Europe and the Neighboring
Regions" between the Ministers of Culture of COE member states, which
took place in Baku on December 2-3, as it was expected, served as a
regular chance for the Azerbaijani authorities to conduct anti-Armenian
campaign in the international arena.

Whereas the occasion was very proper for Armenia as well and the fact
that our authorities missed it over again one more time testifies
that our officials who take pride in the millennial culture of our
people, regrettably, by now are not able to comprehend the importance
of participating in similar events and expressing their personal
opinion. Not only did the Ministers of Culture of COE member states,
but also representatives of authoritative cultural organizations of
the USA, Council of Europe, and UNESCO participated in the conference.

Secretary General of the Council of Europe Terry Davis honored the
conference by his presence and in his opening speech Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliev used the occasion to complain about the
"aggression" of Armenia against Azerbaijan and even managed to
boast about Azerbaijan’s success in the "development of national and
religious tolerance".

The choice of the place and title of the conference demonstrates that
the Council of Europe and its leader Terry Davis far not accidentally
chose the capital of Azerbaijan. It is evident that here we deal with
certain projects to turn Baku, like Turkish Istanbul into a center
of intersection of European and Islamic cultures.

The announcements made by the Official on Academic and Cultural
Exchange Issues of the US State Secretariat Alina Romanovsky and
representative of the Russian Federation Michael Shvedko regarding
the importance of cultural dialogues and turning Azerbaijan into
the bridge of cultures between Europe and the East testifies to the
before mentioned.

Thus the Baku conference held under the auspices of the Council of
Europe was not only an advocacy event for Azerbaijan, in the framework
of which their leaders shed crocodile tears on the topic of the
"annihilation of Azerbaijani cultural memorials" they even managed
to show a movie regarding "Khojalu Genocide". On the background of
similar regular events and the pro-Azerbaijani announcements made
by the Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis, in reality
they solved the political issue of turning Baku into the center of
"cultural dialogues".

Independent of what type of relations we have with Azerbaijan at the
moment Armenian Minister of Culture must have participated in that
event. The Azerbaijani party could never make obstacles, because it
would have contradicted the main essence of the conference.

Moreover it was here that Armenia could demonstrate to the whole
world which country should really become the center of inter-cultural
dialogues of great significance in the 21st century. We don’t have
any intentions to elucidate the ridiculous fact that by mocking at
the main idea of inter-cultural dialogue they convened a conference
of Ministers of Culture in the framework of the Council of Europe,
in the country, which has annihilated the Khachkars of Jugha.

The presence of the Armenian party during the conference was important
for the simple reason that the latter was taking place in the center
of Armenian culture during the recent two centuries, that is to say in
Baku. The Armenian Minister of Culture must have recorded with pride
that he is in the city where all the basic elements of the European
culture – architecture, educational centers, theatres, and libraries
are founded by the Armenians who constructed Baku in the second half
of 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.

Thus the conference on the topic of inter-cultural dialogue held
under the auspices of the Council of Europe was held in the city
where the tats (still in the 19th century they made up 2/3rd of the
population of Baku) the representatives of the real middle-age culture
were forcibly assimilated to Turkish-Azerbaijanis and the Armenians
where forced20to live the city that they have built. That is to say
the inter-culture dialogue is organized in a city, where the main
subjects of that dialogue, the founders of the middle age Iranian
and modern Armenian architecture and culture are simply absent.

We must have had courage to deliver a speech in the conference and
to pay tribute to the founders of the Iranian and Armenian culture
in Baku.