The President of the Republic of Iraq Abdul Latif Rashid on a visit to the University of Bologna

The President of the Republic of Iraq, Abdul Latif Rashid, today received the Silver Sigillum of the University of Bologna from the hands of Rector Giovanni Molari. The award was presented at the end of a meeting in the VIII Centenary Hall at the Rectorate.

The event was opened by Rector Molari's welcome address, which was followed by President Rashid's speech. The Vice Rector for International Relations, Raffaella Campaner, then presented the University of Bologna's projects in Iraq and the prospects for starting new collaborations on the education and research fronts. Some Iraqi students, enrolled at the University of Bologna, also attended the event.

Over the past few years, the University of Bologna has launched important activities in collaboration with Iraqi universities. Since 2016, several development cooperation and capacity building projects have been implemented, and mobility projects for professors and students have been launched.

The University of Bologna coordinated the Erasmus+ WALADU project, which contributed to the reconstruction of Iraqi academic offerings by supporting the modernisation of degree programmes in archaeology and ancient history and laid the foundations for international collaborations between Iraq and Europe. Moreover, it coordinated the EDUU project, financed under the EuropeAid framework, designed to strengthen the pluralism of Iraqi civil society through training activities and archaeological field research, carried out in particular in the archaeological excavation of Nineveh with the support and collaboration of the University of Mosul. The University of Bologna coordinated also the Erasmus+ BANUU project, designed to improve job opportunities for students in the humanities in Iraq through the creation of new cooperation paths between universities and public-private actors. To these is added the Erasmus+ INsPIRE project, in which the University of Bologna is a partner, which aims to strengthen the institutional capacity of universities and the quality of the higher education system through the revitalisation of academic life and scientific research.

Bologna is the second and last stop of the State visit to Italy of President Abdul Latif Rashid, who yesterday met the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in Rome. After the meeting in the Rectorate of the University of Bologna, President Rashid attended the inauguration of the exhibition "The Assyrians in the shadow of the Two Towers. An inscribed brick from the ziggurat of Kalkhu in Iraq and the excavations of the Iraqi-Italian Archaeological Mission in Nineveh", which will be on display from 14 June to 17 September in the Lapidary Hall of the Medieval Civic Museum of the Civic Museums of Bologna.

The exhibition is curated by Nicolò Marchetti, archaeologist and professor at the Department of History and Cultures of the University of Bologna, and promoted by Civic Museums of Bologna, Musei Civici d'Arte Antica, King Abdulaziz Chair for Islamic Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna and the Iraqi-Italian Archaeological Mission in Nineveh.

On the occasion of the inauguration, President Abdul Latif Rashid received a Mesopotamian object confiscated in Italy by the Carabinieri Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Bologna and the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Bologna and the provinces of Modena, Reggio Emilia and Ferrara. It is a baked brick of the Assyrian king Salmanassar III (858-824 BC) with a cuneiform inscription revealing its safe provenance from the ziggurat (stepped temple-tower) of ancient Kalkhu (modern Nimrud), the first capital of the Neo-Assyrian empire, destroyed in 2016 by ISIS iconoclasm.