BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. French Minister for
Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, answering a question
from MP Etienne Blanc in the upper house of parliament – the Senate
– regarding the religious and cultural heritage of Armenia on May
6, presented the events which took place in the region in a
completely distorted form, Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament’s
Committee on Legal Policy and State Building, MP Nizami Safarov
said at the parliament’s plenary meeting today, Trend reports.
According to Safarov, after nearly 30 years, rather than
supporting the initialing of a draft peace agreement between
Azerbaijan and Armenia, the opening of transport communications
between the two states, and the consistent completion of work on
the delimitation and demarcation of borders, the forces that
exhibit an anti-Azerbaijani stance are only trying to sow seeds of
hatred and escalate the situation again.
“On the political, legal, and diplomatic level, the Azerbaijani
side has repeatedly informed the international community that the
region called ‘Nagorno-Karabakh’ doesn’t exist on the territory of
the country and that it is unacceptable to describe the Karabakh
economic region, which is a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, with
this term.
In his speech, Barrot referred to the alleged ‘loss of about 40
objects of Armenian cultural heritage starting in 2021.’ Why didn’t
Western circles, which turned a blind eye to the systematic and
large-scale destruction and theft of Azerbaijani cultural heritage
committed by Armenia in Karabakh during the 30-year occupation and
described as war crimes, express their concern?
The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two additional
protocols were grossly violated, resulting in the destruction of
more than 400 monuments in Karabakh, 63 out of 67 mosques were
razed to the ground and subjected to insults, and 22 museums with
100,000 historical artifacts were destroyed. As in other issues,
double standards and a selective approach are still observed in
relation to problems related to cultural heritage,” he said.
The MP recalled that all historical and religious monuments
located in the territories of Azerbaijan belong to our national and
cultural heritage, regardless of their origin, secular or religious
affiliation, they are reliably protected, and no foreign force can
interfere in matters that fall within the sovereign powers of the
Azerbaijani state.
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