Azerbaijani carpets, admiring with their unusual beauty and colorfulness, increasingly become to attract attention.
President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order on holding the 5th International Symposium on Azerbaijani Carpets in Baku.
Under the order, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Azerkhalcha are instructed to develop and implement an action plan on the organization of the event in October 2017.
Beauty and quality of the national carpets has praised them since ancient times. Hand-made oriental silk and wool Azerbaijani carpets were exported to many countries and still decorate many famous museums and private collections.
Addressing the first branch of "Azerkhalcha" Carpet Company on November 12 as part of his visit to Fuzuli region, President Aliyev said that carpet, an excellent export product of Azerbaijan, will be released to the world markets.
"This will serve as promotion for our country, and at the same time the whole world will see our talented people. On the other hand, it will bring profit to the country, thus contributing to the deviersification of ecvonomy," said the president.
Stressing President Aliyev's efforts for the debelopmentb of ancient art, he said that Azerbaijan is considered the birthplace of carpet art and there are sufficient grounds to talk about it.
"This is a traditional type of craft. We have unique carpets, therefore it's necessary to develop it. The younger generation also shows great interest in these matters," he underlined. "Therefore, "Azerhalcha" enterprise has been created and the first company today begins operation."
Talking about efforts to create such masterpieces, President Aliyev emphasized invaluable merit of Azerbaijani women.
"We all know that women preserve carpet art. Creation and operation of such enterprises also open jobs for women," he said.
Carpets occupy a preeminent place among all the examples of Azerbaijani craftsmanship. In 2010, the Azerbaijani carpet was proclaimed a Masterpiece of Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.
Today, carpet weaving still continues in regions of the country, although the number of ready products has reduced. To preserve this tradition and revive Azerbaijan’s weaving traditions the country aims to develop open ten carpet production enterprises.
The process is expected to start in the first half of 2017, according to the Economy Ministry, while the preparation of “State Program of the Development of Carpet Weaving Craft” is over.
Experts say the realization of the state program will allow presenting the world production of new Azerbaijani kilims and carpets.
Ancient Azerbaijani carpets are stored at the White House, the U.S. State Department, and many other museums across the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Museum of Art in Philadelphia, as well as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
Azerbaijan’s Carpet Museum established in Baku in 1967, being the first carpet museum in the world is the very place that can familiarize all the interested with the unique examples of the national carpets.
A new carpet museum, designed in the form of a rolled carpet, opened in the Baku Seaside Park in 2014 and all carpets were transferred to this museum.
azernews.az