New Start for Great Silk Road
A legendary trade route of the ancient world, the Great Silk Road, emerged at the dawn of the Christian era and was destined to go into the history books. It linked China with Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Sudak, first mentioned in AD 212, was the Western end of the Silk Road in its heyday. It marked the end of the caravan route from China and India and the beginning of the sea route to the West. Wars and intestine strife took their toll on cities and countries, but the Silk Road would always spring back to life. The pursuit of profit, welfare, and communication would invariably get the better of all strife, be it religious, military, or political. Eighteen centuries later, at another of history’s great watersheds, when the issue of searching for ways out of the many minor and major conflicts along with new forms of cooperation among peoples and cultures has come to the fore, we are witnessing a new revival of the Great Silk Road, a unique example of an international infrastructure. It is no accident that many countries that were once crossed by the caravans of the Silk Road (China, Mongolia, and the Central Asian states) are currently seeing a burgeoning of trade companies relying on traditions of olden days, along with new transport routes and international tourist routes.
The Crimea has not been left out of the process either. Crimean initiatives have met with support and understanding and become part of an international UNESCO project, A Comprehensive Study of the Silk Road — the Road of Dialog. This June, the Crimean parliament presidium drafted a new program for the revival of the Silk Road on the initiative of Crimean Supreme Council Speaker Borys Deich.
As The Day learned from the Crimean parliamentary press center, item one under the new program will be an international festival and fair to be hosted by Sudak on October 16-18. As part of the festival, an International Forum of Regions and Countries of the Silk Road will discuss the creation of the Silk Road International Municipal Club and Investment Fund, development of an international Silk Road trademark a network of Silk Road trade houses, and new tourist routes.
The overriding goal of the International Municipal Club will be encouraging friendly relations and fostering business cooperation between East and West. The network of Silk Road trading houses will serve not only to promote business contacts among countries but also to encourage the development of international business and its transition to a new level of mutually advantageous relations.
So-called green tourism, which is now in vogue the world over, is gaining greater popularity with each passing day and ranks on a par with the so-called spiritual and congress tourism. The Crimea, with its unique history and culture, can and must occupy its rightful place in contemporary tourism. This is precisely what the Crimean travel agencies are betting on, with a tourist exhibition planned as part of the fair. The sports section of the forum will address problems of organizing new sports competitions according to the East-West formula.
