The 21st Conference of the World Turkmen Carpet Connoisseur Association and International Conference Turkmen Carpet - Sample of Beauty have been held on the occasion of Turkmen Carpet Day.

Dr Shirin Melikova, Director of Azerbaijan National Carpet Museum, Chair of ICOM Azerbaijan National Committee, Honored Worker of Culture participated at the online conference. Dr Melikova delivered a presentation The Beauty of Karabakh Carpets. She highlighted that many masterpieces of Azerbaijani carpet weaving art were created in Karabakh; narrated about their massive export to Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, and that today they adorn world-famous museums and private collections, representing one of the four regional groups of Azerbaijani carpet weaving. Dr Melikova also noted the 19th-century Karabakh carpet Balig, the first exhibit of the ANCM collection. 

Director spoke in detail to the conference participants about the compositions and the semantic meaning of the symbols and ornaments of the most popular Karabakh carpets such as Khatai, Ajdahali, Malibayli, Gasimushaghi, Bahmanli, Chelebi, and Lampa. She also informed about flat-woven carpets, kilim, jejim, shadda, varni, zili woven in Karabakh along with the pile carpets.

Dr Melikova emphasized the projects organized within the framework of the State Program for the Preservation and Development of Carpet Art in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2018-2022, as well as work done towards the returning of the masterpieces of Azerbaijani carpet weaving art to their homeland supported by the country’s leadership and Heydar Aliyev Foundation. She described one of the most precious exhibits of the ANCM collection - the 17th-century Karabakh carpet Khatai donated to the museum by Heydar Aliyev Foundation in 2018. She added that the Azerbaijani carpet is an invaluable treasure for national and world culture.

Experts from Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Germany, and the UAE also delivered speeches at the conference.