Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

President Ilham Aliyev has called on the UN to be active in its cooperation with Azerbaijan in the period after the 44-day war with Armenia in Karabakh in 2020, Azertag has reported.

He made the remarks at a meeting with the President of the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly Volkan Bozkir in Baku on April 9.

"We have traditionally had close relations with UN agencies, and these relations continue. In the post-war period, contacts have become more frequent and these contacts will be continued. Of course, the UN as the world's leading body must be active in the post-conflict period," Aliyev said.

The president added that Azerbaijan is in close contact with the UN agencies, particularly UNESCO during the new post-war period of reconstruction in the region.

"A new era has begun now – a period of creation, a period of recovery. This has already begun, and we are already in close contact with all UN agencies, including UNESCO. A mission is expected to come on a visit as a result of our discussions with UNESCO," he noted.

The head of state said that Azerbaijan had previously turned to UNESCO asking to send its fact-finding mission to Azerbaijan.

"In fact, we repeatedly asked UNESCO during the conflict to send a fact-finding mission to the occupied territories. According to the information we have, our historical, religious and cultural sites have been destroyed by the Armenians, and we wanted international organizations, including UNESCO which is directly involved in this issue, to come and confirm that. Unfortunately, during the conflict, our proposal went unanswered, but a mission is now expected to come on a visit. We welcome that because Armenian savagery and vandalism are obvious in the liberated lands," he said.

Aliyev stressed that the world community will have a much broader imagination about Armenia's aggression if more international organizations witness the situation themselves.

"The more international organizations see it with their own eyes, the clearer the picture of the conflict and Armenian occupation will be in the world community."

Aliyev also spoke about Azerbaijan's contribution to the international fight against COVID-19 and initiatives to prevent the unfair and unequal distribution of vaccines globally.

"We held the Summit of the Turkic Council, the Non-Aligned Movement Summit and succeeded in holding a special session of the UN General Assembly on COVID. You have also provided great support. I think that subsequent events showed that this is indeed one of the most important issues on the agenda now. Because vaccine nationalism and the unfair distribution of vaccines is an issue on the world agenda today," he said.

He stressed that Azerbaijan was one of the first countries to raise the issue.

"We are trying to eliminate this injustice today. At the same time, during the COVID pandemic, we provided material and humanitarian assistance to more than 30 countries and are committed to continuing this activity," the president added.