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“The sport game Polo has a 3000 years old history which has been developed in Iran,” Hamzeh Ilhani Zadeh the chairman of IRI Polo Federation has noted in an interview given to FARS news agency.

The annual conference of the UNESCO is being held in Baku during these days. According to the Iranian sources Azerbaijan is aimed at registering the Iranian game polo as its own.

The Iranian official has touched the above mentioned issue and has noted in particular, “We hope, it (registration) will not happen. The whole world knows that Azerbaijan has never had a sport game called polo. Polo has a history of 3000 years, and it has originated in Iran.”

Yesterday the Iranian FARS news agency has touched upon the polo issue and has noted in particular, “According to some sources Azerbaijan has presented documentary materials concerning the game polo in the application presented to the UNESCO where the Eastern and Western Azabaijan states are presented as “Southern Azerbaijan”. In this way an impression is made as if “Southern Azerbaijan” is a part of Azerbaijani territory and the historical documentary material refers to the Republic of Azerbaijani.”

Iran and Azerbaijan have had disagreements in recent years over some cultural and historic issues. According to the Iranian side, in addition to maintaining that Nizami Ganjavi was an Azerbaijani, the Azerbaijanis try to present polo as well as Iranian musical instruments as those that originated in Azerbaijan, which has caused discontent of Iranian officials and art workers.