“If we don’t stop it, we will have a second Nakhijevan. Pashinyan’s statement

For the Armenians of Artsakh, it was expected that after Azerbaijan completely occupied Artsakh, it would do everything to erase the Armenian trace, because this is the handwriting of Azerbaijan. However, the RA leader’s statement that he will not try to make the issue of Azerbaijan’s cultural genocide a subject of discussion at the state level is incomprehensible and absurd for them.

Artsakh cultural heritage ombudsman, Caucasus expert Hovik Avanesov calls Nikol Pashinyan’s statement absurd, says that he represents an entire country, it is not permissible to say such things in public.

“These statements of Nikol Pashinyan and all the steps resulting from them fit into the logic of the so-called “peace” agenda, and declaring that they will not do anything against Azerbaijani crimes in order not to interfere with that agenda is at least diplomatic naivety.

First of all, there has never been and never will be a “peace” agenda in Azerbaijan, there are many proofs of this, starting from the cultural vandalism in Artsakh to the occupation of the sovereign territories of the Republic of Armenia.

These statements and steps of Nikol Pashinyan will lead to the fact that the cases of cultural genocide recorded in occupied Artsakh will significantly increase.” 168.amHovik Avanesov said in a conversation with

According to our interlocutor, Azerbaijan organizes large-scale events in the permanently occupied Artsakh, which are followed by the destruction and destruction of cultural monuments. Moreover, when people from different countries of the world go to Artsakh and give Aliyev some kind of award, Azerbaijan is more motivated by this and starts to act recklessly and destroy the Armenian footprint.

“I am afraid that if we do not stop all this, we will have a second Nakhijevan. And under these conditions, not making the issue a topic of discussion at the state level contributes to the promotion of that policy, which is, of course, unacceptable. Today, the opposite should have happened: any case of vandalism in Artsakh should have been reported at the state level.

While the government of Armenia is silent, the government of Azerbaijan is acting and accusing the Armenian side of committing cultural genocide. In other words, having at least such a parallel on the part of the Azerbaijani authorities, the approach of the Armenian authorities should have been different, a harsh response should have been given to all this,” added Hovik Avanesov.

According to him, not only the issue of the destruction of cultural monuments in Artsakh after 2020, but also all those cases that Azerbaijan carried out in Nakhichevan before that, when it razed an entire civilized culture to the ground, should have appeared on the international agenda at the state level today.

“Nikol Pashinyan’s statements are very dangerous and may have serious consequences for the works dedicated to the preservation of our historical and cultural heritage. This will further complicate the work of specialists dealing with the field, because when the problem is raised, the foreign delegate may retort that “if everything is correct, why is there no official response from RA?”

The Mother See of St. Etchmiadzin issued a statement and speaks about it on various international platforms, but the statement expressed by the Church is different, the official political statement is different,” said Artsakh’s cultural heritage ombudsman.

He said that regardless of Nikol Pashinyan’s statements, specialists and interested persons should continue to work actively to save the remaining monuments of Artsakh, otherwise, like the khachkars of Nakhijevan, all of them will disappear after a while.

“Of course, the work for us becomes more complicated under these conditions, but regardless of the created situation, otherwise the minor processes that are taking place today on this or that international platform may be stopped to our detriment. Moreover, I think that under these conditions we are obliged to multiply our efforts even more,” emphasized Hovik Avanesov.

Let’s remind that on April 23, Nikol Pashinyan said in a briefing with journalists that he is not going to make the policy of destroying cultural monuments in Artsakh by Azerbaijan a subject of discussion at the state level. According to Nikol Pashinyan, if they talk about this, a war will be started with Azerbaijan.

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