Damascus-SANA
Within the agenda of the joint Syrian-Russian meeting to follow up on the work of the international conference on the return of refugees, the Ministry of Culture hosted a meeting with a delegation of Russian academics to discuss ways to develop Syrian-Russian cooperation in the urgent field of preservation, protection and restoration of the antiquities sector.
The Minister of Culture, Dr. Labana Mushawah, discussed with the delegation headed by Natalia Solovyova, Deputy Director of the Institute of Material History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the agreement concluded between the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums and the Russian Academy of Sciences, which provides for the exchange of experiences, information and documents in the field of antiquities, especially the protection and preservation of archaeological heritage.
During the meeting, the two sides stressed the desire to cooperate in restoring the Arc de Triomphe in Palmyra, which is a very important archaeological landmark, not only for Syria, but for all human civilization.
In a statement to SANA, the minister indicated that this cooperation will be through an expanded committee consisting of experts supervised by the Directorate of Antiquities and Museums and consisting of Syrian experts in conservation, preservation, restoration and archaeological documentation, as well as Russian and international academic experts under the supervision of UNESCO, in a way that supports the file submitted by Syria on the work it is doing. Official authorities, archaeologists and experts in it to remove Palmyra and the Arc de Triomphe from the list of World Heritage in Danger.
The Russian side noted the importance of the Arc de Triomphe to the Russian people in general, as it is considered an architectural model in many Russian churches and architecture, and its image appears on the cover of one of their educational books, in addition to their teaching of this architectural style in their schools.
Shatha Hammoud
