Tweet
IRAN CLAIMS TO THWART AZERBAIJANI CULTURAL IMPERIALISM AT UNESCO
States News Service
December 5, 2013 Thursday
PRAGUE, Czech Republic
Host Azerbaijan walks away a winner from this week's UNESCO conference
on "intangible cultural heritage," successfully enlisting "urgent"
help to preserve an archaic form of polo played on short-legged
Karabakh horses.
The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization committee's
listing of "chovqan" recognizes that the sport's continuity is
"at risk" from a dwindling number of practitioners, precious little
interest among young people, and urbanization.
It also recognizes the Azerbaijani state's role in safeguarding
chovqan.
As it turns out, that doesn't sit so well with neighboring Iran,
which claims the game -- rendered "chogan" -- as Persian.
Here's a video report on Iranian efforts to "revive an ancient Persian
sport...that dates back to thousands of years ago:"
It's not the money that's at issue here, since there's no direct
funding attached to the "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage In Need
Of Urgent Safeguarding."
It's the principle.
So, as Baku was winning the battle for headlines, Tehran's envoys
were busy wringing backroom concessions out of Azerbaijan and
the committee on behalf of Iran's Western Azerbaijan and Eastern
Azerbaijan provinces, as well as a silent coterie of purported chogan
practitioners in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
While the UNESCO press release on December 3 referred only to "a
traditional horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan," the
"Tehran Times" the next day quoted an Iranian official as claiming
victory.
"The efforts made by the Iranian delegation at the meeting convinced
Azerbaijan to officially acknowledge verbally and in writing the fact
that chogan is not an Azeri game," the director of the Department
for Registration of Natural, Historical, and Intangible Heritage at
Iran's Culture Ministry, Farhad Nazari, said.
He added that the two heavily ethnic Azeri provinces in northwestern
Iran -- West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan -- had been described by
Baku as "south Azerbaijan."
"It is through a trick that they presented South Azerbaijan as part
of the Republic of Azerbaijan's territory and they even presented
some historical evidence to this effect," Iran's semiofficial Fars
News Agency reported.
On the eve of the UN vote, Fars had come right out and accused Baku of
having tried "various means of international deception to register
the Iranian game 'chogan' with UNESCO as Azerbaijani heritage,"
concluding that "Their methods demonstrate the greed of that country."
Fars went on:
Their action is against the UN fundamental principles of territorial
integrity. It is not the first time that Iran's neighbouring countries
claimed the possession of Iran's cultural heritage; for example their
claims for Molana [Jalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi, 13th-century
poet] and Nezami [Ganjavi (Azeri: Nizami Gancavi), 12th-century poet]
and now their claim over the Persian game of Chogan. They even use
our territories as their evidence.
But cooler heads appear to have prevailed at the UNESCO meeting,
and documents were amended after Iranian protests, Nazari said.
A further compromise was reportedly reached.
Iran "can also apply for registration of Iranian chogan on the list,"
Nazari said. "In addition, UNESCO experts in the meeting agreed
that chogan would be registered as a multinational element on the
UNESCO list."
Still, for now, it's "chovqan" that gets the UN's urgent assistance.
The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage meets annually to examine requests for inclusion on
the UNESCO lists and steer efforts to protect such cultural activities.
States News Service
December 5, 2013 Thursday
PRAGUE, Czech Republic
Host Azerbaijan walks away a winner from this week's UNESCO conference
on "intangible cultural heritage," successfully enlisting "urgent"
help to preserve an archaic form of polo played on short-legged
Karabakh horses.
The UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization committee's
listing of "chovqan" recognizes that the sport's continuity is
"at risk" from a dwindling number of practitioners, precious little
interest among young people, and urbanization.
It also recognizes the Azerbaijani state's role in safeguarding
chovqan.
As it turns out, that doesn't sit so well with neighboring Iran,
which claims the game -- rendered "chogan" -- as Persian.
Here's a video report on Iranian efforts to "revive an ancient Persian
sport...that dates back to thousands of years ago:"
It's not the money that's at issue here, since there's no direct
funding attached to the "List of Intangible Cultural Heritage In Need
Of Urgent Safeguarding."
It's the principle.
So, as Baku was winning the battle for headlines, Tehran's envoys
were busy wringing backroom concessions out of Azerbaijan and
the committee on behalf of Iran's Western Azerbaijan and Eastern
Azerbaijan provinces, as well as a silent coterie of purported chogan
practitioners in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
While the UNESCO press release on December 3 referred only to "a
traditional horse-riding game in the Republic of Azerbaijan," the
"Tehran Times" the next day quoted an Iranian official as claiming
victory.
"The efforts made by the Iranian delegation at the meeting convinced
Azerbaijan to officially acknowledge verbally and in writing the fact
that chogan is not an Azeri game," the director of the Department
for Registration of Natural, Historical, and Intangible Heritage at
Iran's Culture Ministry, Farhad Nazari, said.
He added that the two heavily ethnic Azeri provinces in northwestern
Iran -- West Azerbaijan and East Azerbaijan -- had been described by
Baku as "south Azerbaijan."
"It is through a trick that they presented South Azerbaijan as part
of the Republic of Azerbaijan's territory and they even presented
some historical evidence to this effect," Iran's semiofficial Fars
News Agency reported.
On the eve of the UN vote, Fars had come right out and accused Baku of
having tried "various means of international deception to register
the Iranian game 'chogan' with UNESCO as Azerbaijani heritage,"
concluding that "Their methods demonstrate the greed of that country."
Fars went on:
Their action is against the UN fundamental principles of territorial
integrity. It is not the first time that Iran's neighbouring countries
claimed the possession of Iran's cultural heritage; for example their
claims for Molana [Jalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi, 13th-century
poet] and Nezami [Ganjavi (Azeri: Nizami Gancavi), 12th-century poet]
and now their claim over the Persian game of Chogan. They even use
our territories as their evidence.
But cooler heads appear to have prevailed at the UNESCO meeting,
and documents were amended after Iranian protests, Nazari said.
A further compromise was reportedly reached.
Iran "can also apply for registration of Iranian chogan on the list,"
Nazari said. "In addition, UNESCO experts in the meeting agreed
that chogan would be registered as a multinational element on the
UNESCO list."
Still, for now, it's "chovqan" that gets the UN's urgent assistance.
The Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible
Cultural Heritage meets annually to examine requests for inclusion on
the UNESCO lists and steer efforts to protect such cultural activities.