The Turks Wanted to Make Lavash Their Cultural Heritage

It turns out that back in 2014, Turkey together with Azerbaijan was preparing to include lavash – Armenian white bread – into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list as a Turkic product.

However, lavash would be included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as an expression of the culture of Armenia. In the Turkish media, the inclusion of lavash in the UNESCO list as an Armenian heritage received a wide resonance.

At that time, the Turkish newspaper “Sabah” wrote that the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey Omer Celik had told reporters that Turkey together with Azerbaijan was planning to include a number of products into the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

At the 9th meeting of the intergovernmental UNESCO Convention for Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage in Paris on November 26, 2014, it was decided to award the nomination “Lavash, the preparation, meaning and appearance of traditional Armenian bread as an expression of culture” and inscribe lavash on the UNESCO list as Armenian heritage.