Azernews.Az

The Azerbaijani government has said feedback by the fact-finding mission of the Council of Europe Monitoring Committee studying historical monuments in the Armenia-occupied territories of Azerbaijan will be incomplete until its representatives personally see the evidence of Armenian vandalism.
Stating Baku`s stance on the issue, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abulfaz Garayev, said that before the mission`s representatives see the consequences of these actions themselves, their report would be considered "half-finished."
"Our demand is that the fact-finding mission walk through each patch of both Azerbaijan`s ancient land, which is currently located in Armenia, and the territories under occupation, and conduct a comprehensive monitoring of those monuments."
Garayev said Baku would not accept the proposal put forth by Yerevan to divide the mission into two parts, with one conducting monitoring on the Azerbaijani side, while the other on Armenian territory. "Therefore, the report to be prepared by the CE mission remains controversial."
Meanwhile, the visit by the CE fact-finding mission to the region, initially scheduled for September, was postponed, said Robert Palmer, CE Director of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage. He noted that, although the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministries have long submitted the lists of historical monuments to be monitored, a single list has been agreed upon.
"We have yet to solve this issue with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and continue holding talks with both countries on the matter. We have to take the positions of both sides into account to pass a final decision. Afterwards, the list is to be specified by independent experts," Palmer said.
He added that to finalize the list, an agreement has to be reached between the two countries, after which the CE mission will pay a visit to the region.