International Conference: Astronomical Heritage of the Middle East, Republic of Armenia National Academy of Sciences, Yerevan, Armenia, 13-17th November, 2017

According to UNESCO’s Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, “the sky or the dark night sky or celestial objects or starlight as such cannot be nominated to the World Heritage List”. That was in 1972, and UNESCO’s posi- tion was reaffirmed in 2007 (UNESCO 1972; 2007). However, the introductory session of the international conference “Astronomical Heritage of the Middle East” included a pres- entation by Piero Benvenuti, General Secretary of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), on “UNESCO’s Astronomy and World Heritage Initiative”, in which he explained that any tangible and intangible astronomy-related world heritage could now be proposed for protection by nominating it for inclusion in the World Heritage List.