Chairman of UNESCO Commission for Tatarstan Shamil Gafarov: We have three UNESCO sites, but we are not going to stop on that

On 8 December , addressing the participants of  a closing session of the International Forum dedicated to 50th anniversary of the Convention for Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage held in Kazan on 5-8 December, Tatarstan Deputy Prime Minister Shamil Gafarov, who is the Chairman of UNESCO Commission for Tatarstan, expressed his gratitude to all those who did and are doing huge work in the sphere of preservation and use of cultural and natural heritage and development of international humanitarian cooperation.

Having reminded, that Kazan has rich experience in hosting world level events, Shamil Gafarov said: “This event has become special for us as we have been dealing with cultural heritage which will be passed to future generations. We were in a flutter of expectation for this event and are proud that it has been held in Tatarstan. Thank you very much for this.”

He stated that Tatarstan possesses huge work experience in this sphere. “We have three UNESCO sites and we are proud of it. However we are not going to stop on this. Tatarstan is strong by having the heritage that we can pass to future generations and huge work in this respect was done by First Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaimiev”, he said.

Shamil Gafarov stressed that the current President of the republic Rustam Minnikhanov also attaches great attention to preservation of cultural heritage and assured that the region will continue its work in inscription of historical sites into the priceless UNESCO Heritage.

In his turn, speaking at the forum, the State Counselor of Tatarstan, who is the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Cultural Dialogue, Mintimer Shaimiev said that UNESCO should not adjust itself but be the leading force in the sphere of protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage.

He said that “we can see that the world is changing but it is very important to preserve the meaning of values which have already been defined by time”.

Having called for ramping up work for protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage, Mintimer Shaimiev said: “Just imagine how many ill-wishers there were to do everything that this conference would not happen. But this is not for us. The chief slogan of our republic is “We can do it”. Moreover we are not demanding anything from anyone but are rather calling for a dialogue. We all should be more qualified today. We should take action!”

He also told about work of the young model of the UNESCO committee and the involvement of the schoolchildren into preservation of the cultural and natural heritage sites.

In the end of the session the Secretary-General of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO Grigory Ordzhonikidze, who is also the Counselor of the Russia Foreign Minister, read off the declaration of the forum.