Russia supports sending UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh
YEREVAN, February 10. /ARKA/. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova backed the demand of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh that UNESCO send a mission to the occupied parts of Nagorno-Karabakh to carry out a field assessment in order to draw up an inventory of the most significant cultural assets as a prerequisite for effective protection of the region's Armenian heritage.
Zakharova’s remarks came in response to a question asked by a journalist during a February 9 weekly press briefing about Russia's attitude towards Azerbaijan's decision to establish a working group ‘to remove the fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples’ in the recaptured areas. She was also asked what Russia planned to do to prevent the cultural genocide in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Scores of Christian Armenian sites were recaptured by Azerbaijan during the 2020 war with the Armenian forces of Nagorno-Karabakh. Despite the appeals of Russian authorities and international organizations, the Azerbaijani authorities have not yet allowed a UNESCO mission to enter the occupied territories to assess the condition of cultural sites and monuments.
"We are in favor of organizing a UNESCO mission to the region as soon as possible, and we are also working through the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group," Zakharova said.
She recalled that in a joint statement adopted on December 7, 2021, the foreign ministers of Russia, the United States and France called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to continue cooperation under the auspices of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group to achieve real progress on humanitarian issues, including, among others, the protection of historical and cultural sites.
Armenian described the decision of Azerbaijan as an attempt of a cultural genocide and destruction of the church heritage of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Artsakh. Twenty-five Armenian public organizations in a joint statement demanded that the Armenian authorities immediately report Azerbaijan’s decision to the International Court of Justice.
A ruling by the International Court of Justice in December 2021 on a case brought by Armenia declared that Azerbaijan must “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage” in the recaptured territories.
In a tweet the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said it is "deeply concerned by #Azerbaijan's plans to remove Armenian Apostolic inscriptions from churches. We urge the government to preserve and protect places of worship and other religious and cultural sites."
Armenian Foreign Ministry accused Azerbaijan of an unprecedented act of deliberate and illegal appropriation of historical and cultural heritage of neighboring nations and deprivation of their historical memory.
Artsakh Foreign Ministry said that this step strongly confirms the obvious fact that the Armenian cultural heritage, now under the control of the Azerbaijani authorities, faces a real danger of being completely destroyed or cut off from its historical roots.
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin urged the international community to respond to the cultural genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan. -0-
