On April 6, 2023, the President of the Turkic Academy Shahin Mustafayev took part in a conference dedicated to the 35th anniversary of the UNESCO Silk Road Program, which was held at the organization's headquarters in Paris.
The conference, jointly organized by the permanent missions of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and Oman to UNESCO, demonstrates the Silk Road heritage of the above-mentioned countries. An exhibition was organized as part of the event, where samples of the cultural heritage of the participating countries were presented. The opening ceremony of the International Silk Road Forum was attended by Gabriela Ramos, Deputy Director General of UNESCO for Social and Humanitarian Sciences, Saadat Yusifova, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Askhat Oralov, Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan, Chen Jie, Deputy Minister of Education of China, Batogtoh Dorjgotov, representative of the Ministry of Education and Science of Mongolia, and Muati Al Muati, representative of Oman's Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, as well as other officials, well-known international experts and representatives of UNESCO. In his speech, the president of the Academy noted that the Turkic world, located in the very center of the Eurasian continent and at the crossroads of civilizations, throughout its history had an impact on the trade routes passing in different directions and was itself influenced by the Great Silk Road. In this regard, Sh. Mustafayev spoke in detail about the considerable potential of the Turkic Academy from the viewpoint of the scientific study of the Silk Road. “Today, the emergence of independent Turkic states as subjects of international politics and the revival of the Silk Road in the East-West direction open up important opportunities for the Turkic World. The Turkic Academy, jointly established in 2010 by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey and headquartered in Astana, is responsible for the study and promotion of Turkic civilization. In this regard, as the president of the Academy, I believe that studies of the Turkic civilization should be carried out in relation to the Great Silk Road. There is no doubt that the Turkic history is closely interconnected with the phenomenon of the Great Silk Road. In this context, the goals of the Turkic Academy intersect with those of the UNESCO Silk Road program. Most recently, at the beginning of March 2023, during my visit to Uzbekistan, the Turkic Academy and IICAS signed a Memorandum on joint research. I believe that research on the Great Silk Road is not only an issue of the history of intercultural dialogue in the past. I am sure that the experience of human civilization regarding the historical Silk Road can shed light on the prospects for future interaction between cultures and civilizations,” said the Head of the Academy in his speech. It should be noted that the UNESCO Silk Road Program, launched in 1988, provides the study and development of cultural ties between the peoples of the East and the West.
