The President of the National Commission for UNESCO, Lawyer Shawki Sassin, representing the Minister of Culture, Judge Muhammad Wissam Al-Mortada, inaugurated the “Ana Al-Halli Chloe” festival at Al-Azm Cultural Center – Bait Al-Fan in Tripoli, in the presence of the Center’s President Abdel Nasser Yassin and a crowd of cultural and artistic events, personalities and bodies, where the Al-Fayhaa National Choir was presented under the leadership of Maestro Barkief Tslekyan a group of art pieces “that mimic the homeland, peace, love, and heritage.
Dr. Sassin conveyed Minister Al-Murtada’s greetings and apology, for not being able to attend for reasons beyond his control. He stressed, “Tripoli, in its entity, is the brilliance of geography, history and values, stressing that he belongs to it with an affiliation of existence, not an affiliation of affection only.”
He added: “Tripoli is in the heart of the Minister of Culture and the heart of its ministry, and he was the one who passed through it at the beginning of his judicial life as a judge who spoke justice in the name of the Lebanese people, and on the day he took over the Ministry of Culture, Tripoli had a large share of his interests. I refer here to four topics, including, first: the decision to adopt a choir Al-Fayhaa is a national choir due to the diversity that this choir represents, leading to the unity of beauty.Secondly, the adoption of Tripoli as the capital of Arab culture for the year 2024.We have started in the ministry to form a committee to take care of this celebration, which we hope will be a great opportunity to show what Tripoli has in store on the cultural level.Third, the activation of the Khan Committee Al-Askar, where His Excellency the Minister took it upon himself to supervise it in order to reach the city’s benefit from this archaeological facility and to hold artistic and cultural meetings in it, provided that this is accomplished as soon as possible.Fourthly, the file of including the exhibition of Martyr President Rashid Karami on the list of UNESCO’s cultural heritage.”
He continued: “You have heard and we have heard that Tripoli contains the largest amount of Mamluk antiquities after Cairo in this whole East, and you have also heard, heard, learned and learned that Tripoli is the city of coexistence, and this is all true, but today you prove that Tripoli is as much as the city of history is the city of the future. And as much as the city of living is also the city of life, and on this hope, we look at the activities of this cultural and tourist month with the hope that it will be the beginning of a cultural and tourist life that revives the city because both culture and tourism can be transformed into economic products in the sense that they are investment possibilities for local and national development, and there There are many cases in Lebanon and elsewhere in which cultural tools, such as architectural heritage, have been used as a means of economic development. We want to preserve the past and its heritage wealth, but we want to see living people benefit from the past for their day, their future, and the future of their generations.”
And he concluded: “On this please conclude by saying, I hope that the hour of the hill will be the machine by which we set, from today onwards, development times for a beautiful future in Tripoli.”