Azerbaijan participates in Gyeongju Culture Festival of the Silk Road, held in the Republic of Korea.

In the province of Gyeongbuk of the Republic of Korea the Gyeongju Culture Festival of the Silk Road started. Colourful program of the festival, including exhibitions, concerts, presentations, performances, bears the purpose of revival and development of cultural relations, historically existing between the countries of the ancient Silk Road, as well as aimed at cultural exchanges in order to contribute to the peace process in the world, attracted large attention. During the festival, held with the support of the specialized UN agency - the World Tourism Organization and hosted by the World Culture Park of Gyeongju city - one of the centres of ancient Korean culture, more than 30 countries, including Azerbaijan, were represented. Welcoming the guests at the opening ceremony, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Hwang Kyo-ahn noted the importance of such events in terms of the further rapprochement of the countries and peoples. Saying that cultural exchanges of people from different cultures, customs and traditions, help to create new opportunities for cooperation among peoples, and emphasizing that in our time of increased war threat and number of violence cases in the world, there is a great need for such cultural events, Prime Minister said that his country will continue to support such initiatives. Further opening ceremony continued with an interesting concert program. Azerbaijan participates in the festival with a large delegation consisting of members of the State Dance and Old Musical Instruments Ensemble, pianists and soloists, performers on saz. The combined compositions were among the interesting moments of the concert. Joint performances of Korean and Azerbaijani dancers attracted the interest of the participants at the event. Despite the lack of sufficient time for joint rehearsals, the dancers performed the Azerbaijani and Korean dancing on a high level. Note that participation of our masters of art took place with the organizational support of Azerbaijan Culture Foundation and SEBA (Seoul-Baku) Azerbaijan-Korean Cultural Exchange Association, supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Embassy of our country in Seoul. At the "Big Market" fair, organized within the framework of the festival, the participating countries have prepared national pavilions. The pavilion of Azerbaijan demonstrated national souvenirs, gifts, being symbols of our country and its capital, samples of clothing, musical instruments, handmade works, tea sets, as well as food produced in our country, including fruit juices, various beverages, jam and sweets. Koreans and participants of the festival had a great interest in our national pavilion. The festival, making a great contribution to the development of the Azerbaijan culture in Korea, was attended by the Head of the Gabala Region Executive Power Mr. Sabuhi Abdullayev.