Cultural Heritage Research Journal

 Towards  a  dream  of   joint  festivals: beyond  nation-state  borders and  territorial  conflicts

                                                                                                                                                                          Lilit Manukyan

                                 In 2006 a group of Armenian and Azerbaijanian young people gathered 

                                   in came together in Eskişehir  (Turkey) and talked about peace and 

                                                               common life without a third party

" We must protect our cultural values from our muslin neighbors"

" Turks present the Armenian carpets as theirs"

“If you ask an Armenian what ‘dolma’ means in their language, they won’t be able to answer, it is a meaningless word"

These kind of statements are widespread in Armenia and Azerbaijan. The words " our own culture", "protect", "fight" are quite common. Because of the war cultural elements also become a "battlefield" for two sides.

 When I became a student in the Anthropology department I was fortunate to get thinking "tools"- theories, methods to better understand different cultural traditions and people no matter they are in conflict or not. I would always question to myself:  Are really traditions so separated and bordered?   What if a villager in Armenia has got skills of circle dancing similar to the one practiced in one of the Azerbaijanian villages? What if there is not one version of food-tolma (sarma) but many more ones practiced among many people?

My anthropologist professors would help me to confirm the belief that  in some cases there are more similarities among peoples' cultures and traditions than differences, that separate  national borders and flags don’t mean that all the other cultural elements are different, that cultural traditions of food making or craft skills can develop independently but have similar features.

Unfortunately, coming out from the anthropology institute I would hear completely other statements in public area- giving cultural traditions national belonging and excluding the other people to have similar traditions. Discussions  are everywhere: in social media, NGOs for preserving and protecting national traditions and even governmental levels. As I would learn from some young people living in Azerbaijan, the same atmosphere is there.

They influence on public beliefs and mood more than academics, e.g. anthropologists can do.

In this context what is the role of  international organizations, particularly UNESCO?

One of the main missions of this organization is to promote mutual understanding and piece building among different people and safeguarding free expressions of cultural traditions of all. 

Does it really encourage cultural collaboration between states in conflict?

As practice shows, the nominations of cultural traditions (intangible cultural heritage) are  state-based hence oftentimes resulting competition and "war" over cultural elements.

 Concerned by these thoughts I decided my thesis would raise the issue of intangible cultural traditions, their bearers-people who are in territorial conflict  and UNESCO with its missions of piece building and mutual understanding.

I would like this organization to be more sensitive to the issues that some people can be the bearers of similar culture but be in political conflict. That is why it should encourage joint nominations between countries having territorial disputes.  For me it is very strange that lavash- traditional bread has become UNESCO intangible cultural element twice:in the earlier case (2014) as a cultural tradition in Armenia, in the later case as a cultural tradition in  Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakstan,  Kyrgyzstan? (2016). Doesn’t it tell about a competition over this cultural tradition among those two sides?

Isn't it possible to create common platform within UNESCO and organize nominations jointly regardless national  conflicts?

Through my thesis I want to promote making changes in its policy, encourage joint nominations by people in territorial dispute. In this way UNESCO will become a platform where representatives of conflicting countries can collaborate and do joint work at the cultural heritage level.

Eventually, my dream is to see a piece building festival organized by UNESCO where the representatives of the countries in dispute will collaborate with each other and represent their cultural traditions around one table showing all the similarities and differences, acknowledging  that many cultural elements- food, crafts, etc., do not recognize national borders, and sometimes can be represented as belonging to one region but not country.

 I am sure those kind of initiatives and events will create a nice tradition of joint festivals and finally promote the discourse of mutual understanding and piece building among countries in conflict, create more tolerant attitude at least on the level of cultural traditional practices.

                                                 Lavash bread and baking traditions
                                                  in UNESCO Intangible Heritage List

 in Turkey     in Armenia

                        

                                                                                  in Azerbaijan