Dear Colleagues,

ICOMOS Georgia and its partners – ICOMOS Armenia, Ltd. Architectura I Prestizh (Ukraine) and Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage – are pleased to announce that issue 1 of the regional e-magazine Heritage Conservation. Regional Network Journal, established within the EU funded project Regional Co-operation for Cultural Heritage Development, is now available online.

This is the first effort of providing information exchange platform for the heritage professionals of the entire EaP region, contributing to the understanding of the state of heritage preservation within wider regional context, encouraging analysis and identification of the common problems and challenges, as well as finding ways for their solution. In order to ensure maximal dissemination of the provided information, e-magazine is multi-lingual, with articles in English and native languages of the authors. We hope that our effort will improve communication within the heritage professionals on the regional and international levels.

As every new endeavour, work on issue 1 of the e-magazine proved rather challenging, especially in terms of re-establishing and activating professional links and communication. As a result, we received interesting articles – Cultural Heritage Policy issues are discussed by Dr. Eugene Martin (Moldova), Dr. Yuri Maslov (Ukraine), meanwhile, Mrs. Valeria Suruceanu (Moldova), Dr. Inga Karaia (Georgia) focus on the problems of museum policy development, giving a good possibility of comparing the general situation in these countries. Acute needs and requirements of the communities in relation to the cultural heritage in Ukraine and Georgia are analysed by Dr. Liliya Gnatyuk (Ukraine) and Dr. Nino Inaishvili (Georgia), highlighting that existence of unsolved problems in this direction is common for both countries. Problems of preservation and development of urban and rural heritage in Azerbaijan are tackled by Mr. Rizvan Bayramov (Azerbaijan), while Mr. Silvio Calvi (Italy) gives his vision on the current development activities and risks for rural heritage in Georgia. Rich archaeological heritage of Armenia and issues of its preservation are overviewed by Dr. Mkrtich Zardaryan (Armenia).

We hope that our e-magazine will be interesting and useful for our colleagues, provoking further discussions and exchange of ideas.

We would like to thank the authors for their contribution and co-operation.
Special thanks are due to Ms. Angela Wheeler, The Fulbright Program Fellow, who had assisted us in editing English texts.

Dr. Marine Kenia