Azerbaijan to raise intl. awareness on Armenian vandalism
By Mushvig Mehdiyev
Azerbaijan's State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations and Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences has vowed to unveil the real anti-civilization face of Armenia.
To this end a memorandum of understanding was signed at the end of the conference "Monuments under Occupation: Tracing the Historical Memory" co-organized by the Institute on Human Rights and Conflictology of ANAS and State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations.
The document envisages joint realization of projects and events in 2015 in an effort to inform the international community on the Armenian vandalism against Azerbaijan's historical and cultural monuments.
the Institute on Human Rights and Conflictology and Azerbaijan's National Commission on UNESCO will co-conduct a project aimed at raising the awareness of the international community about destruction of monuments of material culture in Azerbaijan's occupied lands, said Ayten Mustafayeva, Director of the Institute.
Mustafayeva added that Armenian has annihilated not only Islamic but also Albanian Christian monuments in the occupied Azerbaijani territories.
She noted that works in this field are underway for more than a year and a book about this issue is being written which will be translated into several European languages.
"The developments in Europe in the face of vandalism prove that Azerbaijan could be an example in terms of tolerance," Mustafayeva said, adding that Azerbaijan has demonstrated its tolerance to the world throughout history.
The total number of cultural monuments, as well as mosques destructed in Azerbaijan's occupied lands reaches thousand, Mustafayeva added.
Addressing the conference, Mubariz Gurbanli, Head of State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations, said information about the Armenian vandalism should be delivered to the international community.
"The Azerbaijani society is completely informed about Armenia's vandalism, crimes against Azerbaijanis and material cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people in the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, as well as in Armenia. Our main goal is to deliver this truth to the international community in various languages," he noted.
Gurbanli appreciated Heydar Aliyev Foundation's great activity in this regard over the last years.
He said the monuments destroyed by Armenians are not only Islamic monuments, but also relating to the Christian culture.
Meanwhile, Milikh Yevdayev, Head of Religious Community of Mountain Jews in Azerbaijan, said no confrontation on religious and national grounds has ever been observed in Azerbaijan.
He added that Azerbaijan could be an example to the whole world in terms of tolerance.
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.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
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