Azerbaijan’s Polo Federation has recently been attempting to register the ancient Iran game as a sport which has originated in Azerbaijan.
“In a letter to UNESCO we declared our opposition to Azerbaijan’s move,” Head of the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization Mehdi Hojjat said Monday.
He underlined that Azerbaijan has only a polo association and Iran has a polo federation.
Polo is an ancient Iranian sport game
Hojjat said that the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization will have a tight and continued follow-up on the case.
The Iranian sports ministry is also trying to prevent polo game from being registered under the name of Azerbaijan.
On Sunday, Iranian officials from the foreign and sport ministries as well as the Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization discussed the Azeri move.
Secretary of the Iranian Polo Federation Hojatollah Dehkhodan had also expressed his concern in this regard, warning that "another cultural heritage of Iran will be registered in the name of another country if the Iranian officials do not take necessary action".
In the same regard, Chairman of the Iranian Polo Federation Hamzeh Elhanizadeh also said that Azerbaijan's recent attempt to appropriate the name of Iranian poet Nezami Gyanjavi, Baku is now trying to do the same with the ancient Iranian sport game of polo and has already applied to UNESCO and the World Polo Federation.
“If Iran doesn’t undertake steps to present Polo as Iranian national sport-game then Azerbaijan will ascribe it to itself soon,” Elhanizadeh said.
Polo is a game in which two teams of players riding on horses try to hit a ball into a goal using long wooden hammers.
