On March 4, “Protection and development of the Armenian Cuisine traditions” NGO and “Union of National Identity Maintenance” NGO came up with an initiative to form a working group designed to identify, study and raise awareness on cultural values, head of the first organization said.

“Joint activity is needed to preserve those intangible assets, our cultural heritage,” Sedrak Mamulyan stressed.

According to him, one of Armenian national dishes harissa was included in UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage as a Turkish dish called “keshkek”. Meanwhile, the Georgians have filed an application to UNESO to recognize production of crucian carps for storing wine as their national handicraft. Georgia has already been recognized the country of origin of wine. Moreover, Georgia has resolved to reinforce its right to be called home to production of honey. Such a statement was issued by a Georgian MP.

In this context, historian Ruben Nahatakyan noted that Georgians who state that winemaking originated in their territory, forget that Kakheti was historically Armenian land where skulls of Armenoids were discovered. Dwelling on Georgia’s statements regarding historical home to the production of honey, Mr. Nahatakyan said that there are even certain type of Armenian bees.

“We ourselves are responsible for the loss of cultural heritage. Our neighbors will continue appropriating our cultural heritage unless we protect it,” the expert concluded.