Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Moscow, SANA- Activities of The International Forum for the 50th Anniversary of Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage started in Kazan, the Capital city of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan.
“Syria was one of the first countries that signed the Convection Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in 1972, as Syria believes that its cultural heritage is unique in its type and exceptional in all standards,” Lubanah Mshaweh, Syria’s Culture Minister said in a speech during the opening ceremony.
Mshaweh said that Syria has witnessed a terrorist war during the last decade that targeted its tangible cultural heritage which suffered from the deliberate sabotage, random excavation, looting and smuggling, followed by unilateral economic measures which badly affected the Syrian efforts to protect the world heritage.
She hailed Russia’s stances in support of Syria in the war on terror and putting an end to the blockade.
Russian Culture Minister, Olga Lyubimova, for her part, affirmed her country’s openness to dialogue and international cooperation in all domains, calling for keeping politicization away from culture and world heritage.
On the sidelines of the Forum, the Syrian and Russian Culture Ministers signed an agreement on cooperation in the culture domain in the presence of Tatarsatan President Rustam Minnikhanov.
Mazen Eyon
