Tahir Amiraslanov: Necessary to continue fighting attempts to appropriate Azerbaijan's intangible heritage

Continuous work is needed to prevent attempts to appropriate the monuments of the intangible heritage of the Azerbaijani people. Such results can be achieved through perseverance and methodical work, Tahir Amiraslanov, head of the National Culinary Association of Azerbaijan told Report.

Amiraslanov listed several successful measures of this kind: "In 2005, with the assistance of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Terry Davis, the book "Culinary Culture of Europe" was published, which contained articles about Azerbaijani and Armenian cuisines. Articles about Armenian cuisine were misleading about ours. For a year and eight months, together with the Ministry of Culture, we wrote appeals to the Council of Europe and achieved our goal. The articles have been corrected, and Terry Davis personally apologized to us."

According to Amiraslanov, Armenians have prepared a list of 200 dishes that they are now trying to submit to UNESCO for inclusion in the lists of the intangible heritage of Armenian culture.

He added that the National Culinary Center was established in 1991 specifically to study and preserve national cuisine as a cultural heritage.

"At the suggestion of the Azerbaijani side, erroneous information about the dishes of seven regions of Azerbaijan was presented to National Geographic, the Armenians received a tool to manipulate us. I objected - I collected my cookbooks and simulated their burning. With this, I wanted to express my disagreement with the inaction of the structures responsible for the preservation of our intangible heritage - our cuisine. I also wanted to attract attention so that people would start reading and studying their history and cuisine," Amiraslanov noted.

"I think that just now when the structure of the National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan is changing, it is high time to create a research institute of national culinary under it, which will deal with the issues of comprehensive study and implementation of the country's national cuisine," the famous culinary specialist said.