UNESCO CHIEF MATSUURA SPEAKS TO AZERBAIJANI OFFICIALS
UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura met Thursday with several Azerbaijani officials, including ministers, deputy ministers and heads of state committees, on the sidelines of the UNESCO Regional Literacy Conference underway in Baku.
During the conversation, minister of culture and tourism Abulfaz Garayev praised UNESCO`s contribution to preserving the whole mankind`s cultural values.
He said the organization must express its views on destruction of Azerbaijan`s historical and cultural monuments in the territories occupied by Armenians.
Garayev stressed the importance of increasing pressure on Armenia to prevent it from further destructing Azerbaijan`s cultural heritage.
The minister said it is extremely important that the UNESCO experts on cultural heritage visit Armenia and the occupied territories of Azerbaijan for a fact-finding mission.
Koichiro Matsuura did not rule out UNESCO`s sending fact-finding mission to the region, and described the preservation of Azerbaijan`s cultural monuments, including those in Nagorno-Karabakh, as a very important issue.
Deputy foreign minister Vagif Sadigov reiterated Azerbaijan`s stance on its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh.
Chairwoman of the State Committee for Family, Women and Children’s Issues Hijran Huseynova put forward a package of proposals to implement joint projects with UNESCO aimed at eliminating illiteracy among women.
Minister of ecology and natural resources Huseyngulu Bagirov spoke of what has been done to improve environmental situation in the country.
Minister of youth and sports Azad Rahimov covered the government`s efforts towards ensuring youth employment in Azerbaijan, where 66 percent of the population are young people.
Rahimov also said Baku will host the world youth employment summit this October.
The UNESCO chief praised Azerbaijan`s achievements in the fields of education and culture.
Koichiro Matsuura said holding the UNESCO Regional Literacy Conference in Azerbaijan demonstrates how much emphasis the organization places on education.
Matsuura said that naming Azerbaijan`s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva UNESCO`s Goodwill Ambassador marked a new era in the relations between the organization and the country.
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