Film to be shot about occupied Aghdam
By Sara Rajabova
A Belgian organization will shoot a film about the occupied Aghdam region of Azerbaijan.
A meeting with the representatives of "The connection point of the Caucasus" organization of Belgium was held at the Council of State Support to NGOs under the President of Azerbaijan.
"The connection point of the Caucasus" organization is funded by the Council within its grant program for foreign NGOs.
The organization's chairman Michel Ivor said they are visiting Azerbaijan in accordance with the project schedule, and have started the preparations to shoot a documentary about Aghdam.
Ivor said the film will be produced in French and English and is designed to inform the European public about the occupied Aghdam region.
Chairman of the Council Azay Guliyev expressed hope that the project will prompt the international community to adopt a fair position on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Quliyev said the Council was ready to provide any assistance needed for shooting of the film.
The Armenian armed forces invaded most of Aghdam's territory on July 23, 1993. The Armenian aggressors seized 882 sq. km. of the 1,094 sq. km. territory of Aghdam, including one city and 80 villages. Some 128,000 people,17,000 of them adults, became internally displaced persons (IDPs).
After invading Azerbaijan's territories, Armenia embarked on a campaign to ruin the cultural and historical monuments of the Azerbaijani people. The Armenians are also seizing monuments of the ancient Caucasus Albania. A variety of ancient Albanian scripts, wall designs, and crosses have been replaced by Armenian attributes. A number of mosques are used as storehouses. Buildings and unique exhibits of the museums located in the occupied Azerbaijani lands have been either destroyed or used as a basis for new museums; thus, the Armenians claim they belong to them.
Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed concern over the destruction of religious and historical monuments in its occupied territories and is committed to informing the world community of the damage inflicted to its cultural heritage.
The deliberate damage and destruction of the historical and cultural monuments by the Armenian invaders violate the 1954 Hague convention on preservation of cultural values during armed conflicts, the 1992 European convention on preservation of archeological heritage, and the 1972 UNESCO convention on preservation of the world's cultural and natural heritage.
For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in a conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, the Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian, and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far. Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.