Mintimer Shaimiev: "UNESCO acknowledged universal value of Bolgar"

On June 26 at his meeting with journalists at the Kazan Kremlin Tatarstan State Counselor Mintimer Shaimiev said that UNESCO had acknowledged the universal value of Bolgar at 37th session of UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cambodia.

He noted that there is every reason to believe that the ancient city of Bolgar will be included in the World Heritage List at 38th session of the UNESCO Committee in 2014 in Qatar.

Aide to Tatarstan President and CEO of the Republican Fund for historical and cultural monuments Tatyana Larionova informed that by and large 981 monuments are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

30 monuments were considered at 37th session of UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Cambodia. 19 of them were included in the list, work on 4 objects including Bolgar is to be completed, consideration of 6 other objects was put off and requires more time to prepare for the nomination. In case the UNESCO Committee decides not to include any object in the Heritage List it will never be nominated again. That’s why Sviyazhsk will be presented for consideration by the UNESCO Committee in 2015.

Main mission of the World Heritage List is to promote and protect unique objects. Therefore, there are special criteria to carry out objective assessment. Two cultural criteria, III and IV were used in relation to Bolgar. According to the 3d criterion, the object is unique for cultural tradition and civilization that still exists or disappeared. The 4th criterion confirms that the object is directly or materially connected with events or traditions, ideas and beliefs and is globally important.

Answering the question about the meaning of inclusion of Bolgar and Sviyazhsk in the UNESCO world heritage list, Mintimer Shaimiev said that above all we speak about Tatarstan image, when so many people will get familiar with its history, and international protection of historical monuments.