Mintimer Shaimiev meets with UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova

On June 5 at their meeting in Paris Tatarstan State Counselor Mintimer Shaimiev and UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova discussed global value of cultural and historical monuments – the Kazan Kremlin, ancient Bolgar and island-town of Sviyazhsk.

Ms Bokova thanked Tatarstan for overall dialogue of cultures, high level of responsibility for cultural and historical heritage in the republic. She noted that restoration of monuments is carried out taking into consideration main articles of the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage and other international regulatory documents.

Irina Bokova appreciated actions and measures taken by Tatarstan leadership on studying the experience of the best Tatarstan, Russian and international experts. She pointed out great number of material and spiritual artifacts of the rich Tatarstan history of 10th-early 20th centuries noting that archeological and historical materials of Bolgar and Sviyazhsk are now kept in Moscow museums, St.Petersburg State Hermitage Museum, museum collections of the Volga region and world museums in England, Finland, Sweden, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, and Bulgaria.

Mintimer Shaimiev, in his turn, focused on great work being performed by Tatarstan scientists on studying, preservation, restoration and promotion of historical and cultural monuments.