RA Deputy Foreign Minister Artak Apitonyan had a zoom conversation with Nicolas Kassianides, UNESCO’s Head of the Cabinet of the Director-General on March 25.
The interlocutors touched upon the issue of protection of the Armenian historical and religious heritage in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, in that context the possibility of sending a fact-finding mission of UNESCO to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).
The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed the urgency of taking steps to protect the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage in the territories under the Azerbaijani control, taking into account the steps taken by Azerbaijan to deliberately destroy and desecrate the Armenian monuments and to distort the identity.
Apitonyan referred to the recent manifestations of the Azerbaijani aggression against the Armenian cultural and religious heritage. Recent report by BBC news service was mentioned, where it is clear that the Armenian Church of Zoravor Surb Astvatsatsin (Mother Mary) near Mekhakavan had been completely destroyed.
Speaking about the preparation works of the fact-finding mission, the Deputy Foreign Minister expressed strong concern over the policy pursued by Azerbaijan to hinder the effective involvement of UNESCO.
It was stressed that Azerbaijan’s attempts to manipulate the mission and unnecessarily politicize it are unacceptable. It was stated that it is important to hold the mission in the framework of the Intergovernmental Committee of The Hague Convention Second Protocol statement, reaffirmed in 1954 and originally announced by the UNESCO Director-General.
