Azernews.Az

Thursday March 28 2024

UN alerted about Armenian vandalism against Azerbaijani heritage

19 May 2021 10:50 (UTC+04:00)
UN alerted about Armenian vandalism against Azerbaijani heritage

By Vafa Ismayilova

Azerbaijan has informed the United Nations about Armenia's vandalism against Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage during three decades of occupation.

In a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Azerbaijan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Yashar Aliyev has described Armenian vandalism as a flagrant violation of international law.

Deliberate Armenian destructions

Aliyev focused on the deliberate destruction of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage by Armenia during the latter's 30-year aggression.

"Besides the devastating humanitarian, economic and social consequences, Armenia's aggression and its illegal occupation of Azerbaijani territories that lasted for three decades also caused irreparable damage to the Azerbaijani cultural heritage, which includes thousands of cultural values, including monuments of the world and national importance, mosques, temples, mausoleums, museums, art galleries, sites of archaeological excavations, libraries and rare manuscripts,” the letter said.

He stressed that Azerbaijan's historical and cultural heritage on the Armenian territory had also been damaged.

Aliyev reiterated that the Azerbaijani government has consistently provided the UN with extensive evidence testifying to Armenia’s purposeful actions to consolidate the occupation of Azerbaijani territories by changing their demographic, cultural, and physical nature and preventing hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Azerbaijanis from returning to their homeland.

“This is a flagrant violation of the international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” the letter said.

Aliyev noted that given the problem's particular importance and great concern over it, Azerbaijan had repeatedly drawn the international community's attention to the atrocities committed against its cultural heritage.

“Azerbaijan appealed to UNESCO and other international organizations to send fact-finding missions to the occupied territories and take urgent measures to ensure the protection of cultural property located there. However, Armenia consistently prevented such missions from visiting the region throughout the occupation period to cover up its crimes based on hatred,” the letter said.

UN still fails to send a fact-finding mission to Karabakh

In his letter, Aliyev said that in its report on the activity carried out in 1995-2004 to implement the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Protocols of 1954 and 1999, UNESCO indicated that the Azerbaijani government informed the secretariat of its concern about the protection of cultural property in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and other occupied territories adjacent to it, and requested to send a fact-finding mission.

“However, the secretariat is unable to send a mission to check the state of cultural property in the area as other UN specialized agencies have been unable to enter these territories since the moment of their occupation by the Armenian armed forces. The [UNESCO] secretariat will again consider the issue of sending a mission after Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a peaceful settlement," he said.

The diplomat stressed that the resumption of hostilities, which followed a new act of aggression by Armenia in late September 2020, led to the liberation of more than Azerbaijani 300 cities, settlements, and villages from Armenia's occupation.

“There was a lot of evidence of destruction and looting committed by the aggressors in the liberated areas and horrifying in its scale. Among other civilian facilities, hundreds of historical, cultural and religious monuments were looted, vandalized, and destroyed in these territories,” he added.

Destroyed mosques

Aliyev stressed in the letter that 64 out of 67 mosques and Islamic religious sites were destroyed, greatly damaged, and desecrated.

“Mosques in Aghdam, Gubadli and Zangilan regions, desecrated by Armenian graffiti, were used as pigsties and cowsheds. More than 900 cemeteries were destroyed and vandalized in these territories. The evidence of illegal 'archaeological excavations' and so-called 'restoration work' was found on the liberated Azerbaijani territories, confirming previous reports of Armenia's attempts to hide and falsify cultural, historical and scientific evidence,” the letter said.

Aliyev added that a modern workshop for the production of "ancient" khachkars - Armenian cross-stones was discovered in Azerbaijan's liberated Kalbajar region.

“These khachkars were oxidized and vinegar was used in the process of artificial aging and then they were buried as 'indisputable evidence' of 'centuries-old Armenian roots' in this region. The Armenian armed forces and illegal settlers, hastily leaving the occupied territories, which had to be returned to Azerbaijan under the terms of the agreement dated November 10, 2020, continued to destroy and plunder cultural values,” the letter said.

He cited as an example the fact that the Armenian servicemen burned down a mosque in Aghdam region's Giyasli village before withdrawal from the region by November 20, 2020, under the previously-signed Karabakh peace deal.

“During the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces, the Khudavang monastery complex, located in Kalbajar region of Azerbaijan, was looted. The fresco on the eastern wall of the Arzu Khatun church inside the complex, as well as crosses, bells, and icons were removed and illegally taken to Armenia," he said

Aliyev said that "the irresponsible behavior and vandalism of Armenia against Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage is a flagrant violation of international law, according to which, firstly, cultural values must not be an object of attack, and, secondly, all necessary measures must be taken for the protection of cultural property during hostilities”.

“Thirdly, seizure, destruction, deliberate damage, plundering and misappropriation of cultural property and acts of vandalism against them are prohibited, and, fourthly, the occupying country must prevent the illegal export of cultural property from the occupied territory and return them to the competent authorities of the occupied territory,” the letter said.

Armenia responsible for war, its consequences

The diplomat described Armenia's actions against the Azerbaijani cultural heritage during the conflict also as "the violation of international humanitarian law" and "war crimes and crimes against humanity in accordance with the international criminal law".

“Moreover, along with ethnic cleansing, seizure of land and property and change of place names on the territories from which the Azerbaijani population was expelled, Armenia, within its purposeful policy and practice of discriminatory destruction of traces of Azerbaijani historical and cultural roots in these regions, was engaged in destruction, desecration, plunder and misappropriation of the Azerbaijani cultural heritage," the letter said.

The diplomat stressed that the Azerbaijani government will repair and restore all historical and cultural facilities damaged during the years of conflict and occupation.

"The work is underway with the participation of experienced specialists and architects on the liberated territories. As Armenia continues to lie and incite hostility, it is important for the international community to remember Armenia's responsibility for the war it has unleashed, for the tens of thousands of civilians it has killed and thousands of cities, settlements and villages that it razed to the ground with the sole purpose of realizing its illegal territorial claims based on fabricated historical theories and racial prejudices to promote lasting peace, justice, and reconciliation,” the letter said.

The photos of destroyed and desecrated mosques in Azerbaijan's Aghdam, Gubadli, and Zangilan regions, as well as the country's other Armenian-destroyed cultural heritage sites were also attached to the letter.

In its official statement in early May, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said that hundreds of cultural institutions, 927 libraries with a book fund of 4.6 million, 22 museums and museum branches with more than 100,000 exhibits, 4 art galleries, 8 culture, and recreation parks, as well as one of the oldest settlements in the world in Fuzuli district - Azykh Cave, Shusha State Historical and Architectural Reserve has become a victim of Armenian vandalism.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Loading...
Latest See more