Rick Gladstone
Iran said Monday that it would oppose attempts by Azerbaijan
to officially register polo with the United Nations as a purely
indigenous sport, arguing that polo is an international game and
Azerbaijan has no right to claim that it originated there. The official
Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Mohammad-Ali Najafi, the head of
Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization [ICHHTO], as
saying in a letter to Unesco
that “Iran strongly requests the rejection” of Azerbaijan’s application
to register polo — which both nations call chogan — as an entry on the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list. (*)
Iran, Afghanistan,
Pakistan and India are among the countries that also have a claim on the
game, the world’s oldest known competitive team sport, in which players
on horseback use mallets to swat a ball through the opposing side’s
goal posts. Unesco — the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — will decide on Azerbaijan’s application during a meeting
of its Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 2-7.
"The New York Times," October 28, 2013
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(*) The October 28 dispatch by IRNA added:
"Meanwhile, ICHHTO Deputy Director Mehdi Hojjat said that Iran
forwarded its objection to Azerbaijan application to register chogan
(polo) on the list for Azerbaijan alone.
'We will tell UNESCO that the traditional game is a common element
that should be not registered exclusively in the name of a single
country.'
Hojjat said that Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, along with Iran,
have a claim on the game, adding that there is a consensus among all
these countries that Azerbaijan does not have the right to register it
for itself.
'Cultural records show that chogan has been played in Iran since
ancient times. Ferdowsi in Shahnameh has made many references to this
sport, and it has been portrayed in many historical miniatures,' he
said.
(...) Iran also raised an objection to UNESCO’s decision in December 2012
to inscribe the performance of the tar and methods for the construction
of the Iranian musical instrument on its List of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage of Humanity for Azerbaijan."
(italics by "Armeniaca")
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