Category: 2022

UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh

“UNESCO continues to work to send its mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, negotiations are underway”, this is how the press service of the organization responded to a request from the Armenian news agency Armenpress. The request concerned reports received by Armenia about the destruction of Armenian monuments in the territories that, after the 2020 war in Karabakh, came under the control of Azerbaijan.

Recently, the statement of the Azerbaijani side on the formation of a working group of “specialists in Albanian history and architecture” has been actively discussed in the Armenian society. The working group will reportedly be responsible for removing Armenian inscriptions and other “fictitious traces” from churches that are declared “Albanian” in Azerbaijan.

The Armenian side believes that there is an ongoing process of deliberate destruction of the Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.

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Armenia is closely following the statements of the Azerbaijani side regarding historical and religious monuments in the territories controlled by Azerbaijan.

Both the Armenian authorities and the residents of the country believe that Azerbaijan is deliberately eliminating the Armenian traces in Karabakh. In early February, the reason for this was the statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Anar Karimov. He announced the creation of a working group, consisting of local and foreign experts, which was created “to eliminate fictitious traces left by Armenians” in “Albanian” churches.

“Armenians left traces on our monuments, we are now collecting evidence of this”, the minister told reporters.

Earlier, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev visited the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Hadrut, where he also spoke about Armenian inscriptions:

“Armenians have defiled the Albanian temple in the same way they have desecrated our mosques. But we will restore them. All these inscriptions are false, they were made later”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and the unrecognized NKR responded to the statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan. He described it as a gross violation of the decision of the International Court of Justice of December 7, 2021.

On that day, the Hague court issued a ruling on taking urgent measures on the counterclaims of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Both countries accuse each other of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The Armenian side demanded to take urgent measures before considering the main claim against Azerbaijan and to oblige Baku not to destroy Armenian cultural monuments in the territories that came under the control of Azerbaijan. The court granted this appeal.

According to the court decision, Azerbaijan is obliged “to take all necessary measures to prevent, suppress and punish acts of vandalism and desecration of the Armenian cultural heritage”.

The “Azerbaijani initiative” is not only an open challenge to the decision of the Hague court, but also contradicts Azerbaijan’s statements about its readiness for reconciliation, creates obstacles to establishing peace in the region, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said in response.

The Armenian Foreign Ministry considers it a priority and an urgent necessity to send a UNESCO fact-finding mission to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone:

“Recorded cases of vandalism of Armenian monuments, as well as the announcement by the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan about the creation of a working group to distort the identity of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage, indicate that this danger is real”.

“At the moment, there are no necessary conditions for sending a mission”

Meanwhile, UNESCO reports that it has not yet been possible to launch a fact-finding mission:

“We continue to work on sending an independent UNESCO technical mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, in accordance with the 1954 Hague Convention [for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict]. We hope that this will become possible in the near future, but at the moment there are no necessary conditions for this. So the discussions are still ongoing”, said spokesman Thomas Mallard.

Armenpress agency addressed the organization with a question: “Can the Azerbaijani interpretation of history become a justification for the destruction of Armenian historical inscriptions and other traces from religious and other monuments?”

UNESCO answered that the historical and cultural heritage “should not become a tool for achieving political goals”:

“We call on all our member states to respect this principle throughout the world”.

After the online meeting of the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, France and the head of the European Council in February, information appeared that the parties agreed to deploy a UNESCO mission to Armenia and Azerbaijan. However, the Armenian Foreign Ministry reports that there are no “specific dates and agreements” yet.

UNESCO mission to Azerbaijan and Armenia

During a video conference of French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the Council of the European Union Charles Michel, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on February 4, 2022, an agreement was reached to deploy a UNESCO mission to Azerbaijan and Armenia.

No dates for the mission have been announced yet. But the other day a UNESCO representative said that the organization is preparing a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh. According to political observer Agshin Karimov, the sudden efficiency of the organization, which, for 20 years, has refused to send its mission to Karabakh, is surprising.

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The Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan has issued a statement regarding the agreement to send a UNESCO mission to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the near future.

“As you know, on Armenia’s territory there are samples of the rich historical, cultural and religious heritage of Azerbaijanis who have lived in Armenia for centuries. According to statistics given back in 1869 in the document “Caucasian Calendar for 1870”, published by the Governorate of Caucasian Russia, there were 269 mosques in the Irevan province alone. In addition to mosques, this list also includes the Khan’s palace in Irevan, the walls of the Irevan fortress, numerous baths, caravanserais, tombs, cemeteries, etc. that existed on the territory of modern Armenia.

Blue Mosque in Yerevan. Photo: Report

We hope that the upcoming UNESCO mission will be able to conduct a detailed study, monitoring and documentation of the heritage belonging to the Azerbaijani people on the territory of Armenia”, the agency said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is trying to distort the agreements reached in connection with the visits of UNESCO missions to Azerbaijan and Armenia. We condemn another attempt by Armenia to evade the fulfillment of its obligations”, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“As for the technical mission of UNESCO to Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani side welcomes its implementation from the first day.

All preparatory work for the implementation of the mission in the shortest possible time was agreed in a bilateral format between Azerbaijan and UNESCO.

For more than 20 years, Azerbaijan has persistently appealed to the organization and sent numerous letters with calls to carry out this mission. Unfortunately, the mission was not carried out, and Armenia was the only culprit. UNESCO itself confirmed this fact in its 2005 report. Thus, the organization stressed that the Azerbaijani lands are under the occupation of Armenia, and admitted that it was Armenia that prevented the visits.

As for the UNESCO mission to Armenia, the Azerbaijani side has repeatedly informed this organization and the international community about the facts of the destruction in Armenia of the cultural heritage belonging to the Azerbaijani people.

Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations have recently provided UNESCO with detailed information about these destructions, including photographs and other evidence.

We believe that it is necessary to send a mission to Armenia to investigate the facts presented to UNESCO by the Azerbaijani side. We hope that this time the Armenian side will abandon the policy of obstructing the international mission in the territories that were previously under occupation, and will create conditions for the implementation of this mission”, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Representatives of non-governmental public organizations of Azerbaijan appealed to UNESCO with a request to “investigate the cultural genocide committed by Armenia against the heritage of the Azerbaijani people on the territory of this country”.

The appeal was sent to UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay.

“We are asking you to send an expert group to Armenia to assess the current state of the centuries-old cultural and historical heritage of the Azerbaijani people. We hope that Armenia, which has assumed this obligation, will not interfere with the implementation of the UNESCO mission, and as a result of its objective report, the whole world will know about the actions committed against the heritage of the Azerbaijani people”, the appeal says.

The Coordination Council of the Netherlands-Belgium Azerbaijanis, Association Dialogue France-Azerbaïdjan, L’Association culturelle D’Azerbaïdjan en France à Nantes), the BENELUX Azerbaijanis Congress, the Azerbaijan-Dutch Association Odlar Yurdu (Azerbaycan-Nederland “Odlar Yurdu” vereniging) and a number of other NGOs stated in their appeal that “as a result of the targeted policy pursued by Armenia , the centuries-old cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people on the territory of the Republic of Armenia is under the threat of complete destruction.

The NGOs informed that “ethnic cleansing and forced eviction of Azerbaijanis from Armenia were accompanied by the destruction of their cultural monuments”.

“As a result of the mass deportation of Azerbaijanis from their native lands, which began at the beginning of the 20th century, not a single Azerbaijani remained in Armenia. In 1988 alone, more than 250,000 Azerbaijanis were expelled from their native lands and became refugees.

Armenia deliberately erased all traces of the residence of Azerbaijanis, who are autochthonous in these territories, destroyed, appropriated and changed the cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people, also replacing the ancient toponyms in these areas with Armenian ones”, the appeal says.

“During a video conference of French President Emmanuel Macron, President of the Council of the European Union Charles Michel, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on February 4, 2022, an agreement was reached to deploy a UNESCO mission to Azerbaijan and Armenia”, political observer Agshin Karimov noted.

“However, according to UNESCO representative Thomas Mallard, the organization is working on sending an independent technical mission to Nagorno-Karabakh.

The _expression_ “Nagorno-Karabakh” is already a mistake made by this person. But one might think that Mr. Mallard has not yet had time to make adjustments to his vocabulary in connection with the new realities in the South Caucasus.

But be that as it may, this statement of the UNESCO representative causes sharp discontent in Azerbaijan.

Firstly, what does the representative of this organization mean by the phrase “Nagorno-Karabakh”. Such a geographical unit no longer exists. And his statement is nothing but disrespect for the sovereignty of Azerbaijan.

Secondly, since when did UNESCO start making political statements?

For 20 years now, Azerbaijan has been persistently seeking to send a UNESCO mission to the territories of Azerbaijan, which were then still under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces. Countless calls and letters went unanswered.

But UNESCO itself in a report for 2005 admitted that Armenia does not allow sending a mission to Karabakh. The refusal to have the mission deployed there mission was justified by the fact that these territories of Azerbaijan were under the occupation of Armenia, and Armenia was not allowing the mission to arrive.

In short, during the years of the occupation of Azerbaijani territories, UNESCO did not attach much importance to Azerbaijan’s appeals, and now it demonstrates amazing one-sided efficiency.

Mr. Mallard notes that it is unacceptable to turn the topic of cultural heritage into a political tool. And he himself demonstrates political hypocrisy, trying to quickly respond to the appeal of only one side”, the political observer .