TEHRAN – Iranian Poetry and Fiction Foundation director Mehdi Qezeli visited the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in his recent trip to Moscow, the foundation announced on Wednesday.

Plans to organize literary meetings, book fairs and film screening sessions in the two countries were discussed during a meeting held between Qezeli and the director of the museum, Alexander Shkolnik. 

Shkolnik spoke of his interest in boosting cultural relations with Iran, and said that directors of several war museums are members of the international committee of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War and he invited the director of Iran’s Islamic Revolution and Sacred Defense Museum to join.

Qezeli also said that visiting Volgograd, the Russian city that was once the site of WWII’s Battle of Stalingrad, and the southwestern Iranian city of Khorramshahr, which was the site of a major liberation campaign during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, would be interesting for artists from the two countries.

He also proposed that each year one Persian and one Russian book on war and patriotism would be selected and translated.

Photo: Iranian Poetry and Fiction Foundation director Mehdi Qezeli (3rd L) and Iranian cultural attaché Qahreman Soleimani (4th L) visit the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.

RM/MMS/YAW