Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. I. Alizadeh / The issue concerning the visit of PACE co-rapporteur, Edward O'Hara, to study the cultural heritage in the South Caucasus, will be discussed during the autumn session of PACE, Rafael Huseynov, a member of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, said.
Azerbaijan is interested in the PACE co-rapporteur's visit to Azerbaijan. The issue will be discussed at the meeting of the Culture, Science and Education Committee and the Cultural Heritage Subcommittee of the Parliamentary Assembly. We will inform them that Armenia has hindered the visit of Committee members to Azerbaijan," Huseynov said.
Earlier, O'Hara's visit to Azerbaijan was scheduled for the end of 2005. However, the visit was postponed due to some reasons. The latest visit was scheduled between 29 August and 6 September 2007, but O'Hara could not visit the region.
According to Huseynov, O'Hara is doing all that is possible in order to pay his visit to the region however, Armenia also does its best to hinder it.
" Azerbaijan agreed on the visit that was planned for the end of August. Initially O'Hara was planning to visit Azerbaijan, and then follow it with a visit to Nagorno-Karabakh after visiting Armenia. We consider it wrong and have stated our conditions, Huseynov said.
Baku official is interested that the co-rapporteurs study the current condition of its historical and cultural monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Nagorno-Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan and the rapporteur should visit -Karabakh via the territory of Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan will provide security for O'Hara as he represents an international organization.
Armenia proposes to study the issue concerning destroyed graves in the Julfa territory of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, despite the Azerbaijani Government insisting that Armenia destroys all historical and cultural monuments in the occupied territories.