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Abbas Ganbay

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On November 7-10, 2023, the delegation headed by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elnur Mammadov paid a working visit to the Republic of France in order to participate in the 42nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO.

Azernews reports with reference to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

It was noted that Azerbaijan was elected one of the vice presidents of the General Conference by a unanimous decision on the first day of the session. Within the framework of the visit, Deputy Minister Elnur Mammadov spoke during the general political debates of the General Conference, as well as held a number of bilateral meetings.

Delivering a national statement on November 10, Deputy Minister Elnur Mammadov said that Azerbaijan is one of the key partners of the Organization and regularly promotes intercultural and interreligious dialogue with important global initiatives.

In his speech, the deputy minister touched on the issue of the complete destruction of the existing historical, cultural, and religious monuments in Azerbaijan's liberated Garabagh economic region, as well as in the territories of Armenia, on the basis of ethnic hatred against the Azerbaijani people, and pointed out that our country has repeatedly appealed to UNESCO and other international organizations in this regard.

Despite Azerbaijan's numerous calls to take urgent measures to ensure the protection of the existing cultural heritage and the organization of relevant fact-finding missions, it was regrettably emphasized that this was not possible due to the obstacles of the Armenian side.

In his speech, the deputy minister also talked about the large-scale reconstruction and restoration work carried out by our country in the post-conflict period and said that Azerbaijan attaches special importance to the restoration of existing cultural and religious objects in the region and that many steps have been taken in this direction.

Within the framework of the visit, Deputy Minister Elnur Mammadov also held bilateral meetings with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azule and Deputy Director-General for Social and Humanitarian Sciences Gabriela Ramos.

At the meetings, views were exchanged on Azerbaijan-UNESCO relations, the current agenda of cooperation, including the Organization's prospects for cooperation in the field of social and humanitarian sciences, and numerous initiatives put forward by our country.

Also, in the meetings, Armenia was informed in detail about the destruction of historical, cultural, and religious monuments in the territories of Azerbaijan and Armenia. In this regard, a call was made to send a relevant fact-finding mission to Armenia in order to assess the current state of Azerbaijan's cultural heritage.

It was brought to attention that after the anti-terrorist measures carried out by Azerbaijan, Armenia's claims about the danger of cultural and historical monuments in the region are groundless, and this was confirmed by two UN missions in the region.

The importance of the "Baku Process" initiative on intercultural dialogue was emphasized at the meeting. Stating that UNESCO is the main supporter and partner of the "Baku Process" as well as the World Intercultural Dialogue Forum, hope was expressed for the continuation of this cooperation.

During the 42nd session of the General Conference, which will last until November 22, 2023, Azerbaijan will be represented by various institutions in relevant fields.

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