Azerbaijan to prevent Armenian provocation in St. Petersburg
By Rashid Shirinov
Azerbaijan has been informed about another attempt of Armenians to present the Azerbaijani cultural heritage items as Armenian in Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
“This is another Armenian provocation,” Hikmet Hajiyev, spokesman for Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry told Trend on September 21.
“Azerbaijan’s embassy in Russia and the country’s Consulate General in St. Petersburg are taking measures to prevent this provocation,” Hajiyev added.
In particular, Armenians plan to present the coins of Azerbaijani khanates as eastern Armenian coins in Hermitage Museum.
“Presentation of the territories of Ganja, Karabakh and Irevan as ancient Armenian lands by Armenian numismatist at the International Conference on Oriental Numismatics on September 26 in St. Petersburg should be prevented,” Director of the National Museum of History Naila Velikhanli said on September 21 at a meeting of the Presidium of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS).
She noted that the performance of an Armenian numismatist on the subject has already been included in the conference program, and it is a political issue. Velikhanli stressed that no representative of Azerbaijan will participate in the conference, “however, it is important to ensure that”.
In turn, Vice-President of ANAS Isa Habibbayli said that an academic reference about the groundlessness of the Armenian report should be written, and the report should be excluded from the program of the conference.
President of ANAS Akif Alizadeh noted that this issue will be discussed in the Academy and a corresponding decision will be made.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations.
Armenia still controls fifth part of Azerbaijan's territory and rejects implementing four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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