Azeri culture minister meets Vatican counterpart
Azeri Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfaz Garayev met with
Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican's culture minister on
Wednesday.
Garayev said hopes are high that the first official visit of the Vatican's culture minister to Azerbaijan will promote cultural ties.
Garayev said Azeri delegates visited Vatican this year in April and famous Azeri mugham singer Alim Gasimov for the first time performed there. The concert of renowned mugham performer took place in the presence of Vatican`s top officials and foreign ambassadors.
"For us cooperation between Azerbaijan and Vatican has three priority directions: the first one is the unique Azerbaijani culture. We can say that Azerbaijan is the only Muslim country, which is completely open to the world. And we would like to introduce this country to the whole Catholic world. Secondly, we are ready to cooperate with academic structures; we are going to visit Heydar Aliyev Foundation to implement several joint cultural, social and scientific projects. And the third area of our cooperation refers to the Library and Museum of Vatican", Ravasi said, adding that libraries of Vatican are open to Azerbaijani specialists.
"We are interested in financing education of Azerbaijani students to work in the Vatican`s library," he said.
Ravasi noted he would like to express gratitude to Azerbaijan as it has already implemented several high-level events to promote interreligious dialogue.
Garayev said hopes are high that the first official visit of the Vatican's culture minister to Azerbaijan will promote cultural ties.
Garayev said Azeri delegates visited Vatican this year in April and famous Azeri mugham singer Alim Gasimov for the first time performed there. The concert of renowned mugham performer took place in the presence of Vatican`s top officials and foreign ambassadors.
"For us cooperation between Azerbaijan and Vatican has three priority directions: the first one is the unique Azerbaijani culture. We can say that Azerbaijan is the only Muslim country, which is completely open to the world. And we would like to introduce this country to the whole Catholic world. Secondly, we are ready to cooperate with academic structures; we are going to visit Heydar Aliyev Foundation to implement several joint cultural, social and scientific projects. And the third area of our cooperation refers to the Library and Museum of Vatican", Ravasi said, adding that libraries of Vatican are open to Azerbaijani specialists.
"We are interested in financing education of Azerbaijani students to work in the Vatican`s library," he said.
Ravasi noted he would like to express gratitude to Azerbaijan as it has already implemented several high-level events to promote interreligious dialogue.