MIRAS Social Organization in Support of Studying of Cultural Heritage made researches over 100 facilities in July, 2015 in Agsu, Shamakhi and Ismayilly regions within the project “Tourism Perspectives of Archaeological Monuments and Support to Disabled Rehabilitation” financed by Council on State Support to NGOs under the auspices of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. There was held a survey among 135 people there. Poor awareness on inclusive tourism, new kind of tourism in Azerbaijan showed that there was need for serious enlightenment in this domain. Thus, it is decided that, trainings and seminars are held on the third stage of the project in the cities of Agsu, Shamakhi, Ismayilly and dedicated to inclusive tourism perspectives.
On 24 August, 2015 such an event was held in the hall of Shamakhi region Education Department for the region community and intellectuals for the first time. The professionals from various institutions took part in the training. The training was held by the project manager, chairman of MIRAS Social Organization, PhD Fariz Khalilli, as well as the project experts, PhD on architecture Agasalim Azizov and Elmira Abasova. Fariz Khalilli gave comprehensive information on the project and brought to the notice the report of the survey held over the Samakhi. According to the report, 60 people being 21 women and 39 men from Shamakhi participated at the survey. The instructor noting that cultural heritage monuments are not completely fit for inclusive tourism showed the ways of elimination of these problems. Architect Agasalim Azizov shared information on his project on inclusive tourism he elaborated for Medieval Agsu Town Archaeological Tourism Complex. He underscored that, the project will be available from the aspect that, the archaeological monuments will be admissible for grown-ups and invalids. Elmira Abasova spoke about psychological situation of the society and disabled people and formation of ecological civilization.
The residents stressed that the people’s financial situation do not allow them to join inclusive tours, to go to health care institutions, hospitals of Skamakhi with difficulty, their applying to Ministry of Health in this regard, they could not get response. Particularly, Garabakh disabled people and grown-ups complained about this. In fact, the hall chosen for the training of inclusive tourism project proved that indifferent attention towards the disabled and grown-ups in the region was felt. To note, it was observed that, disabled people and grown-ups are not taken into consideration in any administrative, health and cultural facilities inside the city.
The employee of Shamakhi branch Culture and Tourism Department, Rafael Tagizadeh spoke on behalf of the region community said that, it is important from the aspect that the training is educational and indicate the ways of problems solution. He noted that, the events will be arranged to make comfortable grown-ups and disabled people’s joining tours upon restoration and conservation of cultural heritage monuments. In the end books were presented as gifts to the fund of Skamakhi Central Library System.
On 25th August MIRAS Folklore Group held a concert for patients of Shamakhi Neurological Clinic. The patients joined the project members and volunteers, and performed dances and sang songs and in the end they were given books and various urgent items. The patients of the clinic are intended to visit cultural heritage monuments of nearby regions of Azerbaijan in the future.