On May 5-6, 2023, an international scientific conference “Intercultural Dialogue and Ethnic Identity”, dedicated to the 100th Anniversary of Heydar Aliyev, National Leader of Azerbaijani People, began at the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. Dr. Shirin Melikova, the director of the museum, delivered an opening speech and welcomed the participants and guests. She emphasized that one of the main directions of the multifaceted activities of the outstanding statesman Heydar Aliyev was the preservation of ethnic identity, the establishment of cultural dialogue between peoples, countries and other important issues. She said that this conference held in 2023 as part of the Heydar Aliyev Year would include reports analyzing the topics from different contexts.
Dr. Araz Gurbanov, the analyst of the Baku International Center for Multiculturalism, delivered a speech and marked the importance of the topic covered by the conference. The conference went in sessions.
Dr. Zaur Hasanov, executive director of ANAS Institute of Archaeology, Ethnography and Anthropology, Dr. Shirin Melikova, director of the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, Anna Szelingowska, curator of the Department of Non-European Cultures at the Ethnographic Museum in Krakow, Dr. Irina Koshoridze, a chief curator of the Georgian National Museum, Lee Jae Jung, researching professor at the Silk Road and Central Asian Institute at Keimyung University, Ekrem Aytar, director of the Museum of Turkic and Islamic Arts, Dr. Sumiyo Okumura, Art historian in Turkey and independent curator at SOACArt, Dr. Alexandru Gh. Sonoc, Head of the Brukenthal Art Museum at the Brukenthal National Museum in Sibiu, Dr. Lajos Kemecsi, Director General of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest, Dr. Aigul Ageleuova, Dean of the Faculty of Tourism of the Kazakh Academy of Sports and Tourism, Dr. Binafsha Nodir, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of "SAN'AT" (ART) magazine of the Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan delivered reports that aroused great interest.
One of the memorable moments at the international conference was signing of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum and the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest by the heads of both museums.
Igor Malkiel, Head of the Laboratory for the Scientific Restoration of Precious and Archaeological Metals of the Hermitage, who took part in the event, was presented with tactile replicas of Pazirik carpet’s fragments, woven in the Traditional Technology Department of Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum. Shirin Malikova noted that those carpets were a gift to the Hermitage in accordance with the concept of the inclusive exhibition Invisible Art: Expanding the Boundaries of What Is Possible, held in the Hermitage in 2021.
Elmira Suleymanova, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Elders of Azerbaijan, former Commissioner for Human Rights of the Republic of Azerbaijan (former Ombudsman), Professor, who attended the conference as an honored guest, spoke about the activities of National Leader Heydar Aliyev based on wise policy as a great statesman and said that the conference was of great importance.
The program of the two-day conference also included a cultural program for the guests – they visited the Heydar Aliyev Center and the “Ateshgah” State Historical and Architectural Reserve. The conference, organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, with the support of the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO and the Baku Yunus Emre Institute.