The First Cultural Forum of the Turkic World held on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the National leader Heydar Aliyev organized by the Ministry of Culture is underway in Shusha city.
The Shusha Declaration was adopted by the Forum participants on October 14.
The Declaration reads as follows:
1. On behalf of all the participants, we express our gratitude to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mr. Ilham Aliyev for his support to the first cultural forum of the Turkic World.
2. We welcome the Great Return to the territories of Azerbaijan liberated from the occupation, including to the cultural capital 2023 of the Turkic World Shusha city, the wide-scale restoration andconstruction works speedily carried out in this direction, and the revitalization of the cultural environment.
3. We strongly condemn such gross violations of international humanitarian law as large-scale destruction of the historical and cultural monuments forming an integral part of the cultural heritage of the Turkic World in the Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur regions of Azerbaijan during the 30-year occupation period, as well as the trafficking and illegal circulation of cultural property, and demand the relevant international institutions to take a serious stance on this matter.
4. Considering the past, present, and future of the Turkic culture within the discussions and broad exchange of ideas held in Shusha, we support the creation of new tools to address such challenges through joint cooperation.
5. We deem it necessary to strengthen our common cultural position through the Turkic languages and literature and encourage the transformation of this heritage into the digital domain.
6. Given the positive outcomes achieved within the First Cultural Forum of the Turkic World, we welcome the creation of a network of the heritage managers of the Turkic World who would jointly work to explore, restore, preserve, and promote the Turkic historical-cultural heritage, and share the best experiences and recommend the establishment of a regular platform.
7. We highly appreciate the establishment of the cultural routes program in the Turkic World and the initiative to establish the first cultural route as a prospective joint project, and call upon all the stakeholders to expedite this initiative.
8. We encourage cultural digitalization, as well as the generation of common solutions that will address the challenges faced by the Turkic culture in the XXI century and propose to intensify the discussions towards the creation of common markets of creative industries in the cultural field.
9. We note that the Cultural Forum of the Turkic World established by the initiative of the Republic of Azerbaijan as a key universal platform bringing together the representatives of all the stakeholders is successful and offer to hold the Forum once every two years.
Then the event participants had memory photos taken.