Director General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura received Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva

Director General of UNESCO Koichiro Matsuura received in Paris Goodwill Ambassador, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and Foundation of Friends of Azerbaijan Culture Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva.

During the meeting, Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva conveyed sincere greetings from President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to the UNESCO Director General. Noting the expansion of the cooperation between Azerbaijan and UNESCO over the recent period, the Goodwill Ambassador highly appreciated the Organization's attention to the traditional Azerbaijani music, in particular, mugham, and including it in the UNESCO list of Cultural Heritage.

Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva informed the Director General on the work done by the Foundations she heads to safeguard tangible and intangible cultural heritage, in particular the projects on safeguarding and propagation of Mughams, noting at the same time that there is still a need for UNESCO's assistance with respect in both mentioned and some other problems.

UNESCO Director General thanked Mrs. Aliyeva for her participation in the Goodwill Ambassadors annual meeting. Recalling his September 2004 meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who invited him to visit country, Mr. K. Matsuura expressed confidence that he would manage to do so later this year. He especially stressed his satisfaction with UNESCO-Azerbaijan cooperation in the fields of culture, science and education. The Director General highly valued the Azerbaijani President's effort in safeguarding cultural heritage of the country

The meeting was attended by Azerbaijani representative to UNESCO Eleonora Huseynova.