BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 26
Trend:
Unfortunately, the Armenian Foreign Ministry still suffers from amnesia, said Leyla Abdullayeva, Spokesperson for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Trend reports citing the Foreign Ministry.
Abdullayeva made the remark while responding to a request from local media outlets regarding the comment of the Armenian Foreign Ministry on the the UNESCO mission's visit to Azerbaijan.
“Armenia, which for almost 30 years pursued an aggressive policy towards Azerbaijan and held a part of its internationally recognized territories under military occupation, is responsible for such war crimes as destruction of historical, cultural and religious heritage of Azerbaijan, the illegal export of the country's cultural values,” Abdullayeva said.
According to the spokesperson, Azerbaijan once repeatedly appealed to UNESCO regarding a visit to the Karabakh region, to investigate these crimes of Armenia, and it was Armenia that prevented international missions from visiting the territories of Azerbaijan that were under occupation at that time.
“This fact was repeatedly cited in the organization's reports, therefore, we advise the Armenian Foreign Ministry to familiarize with the report on UNESCO's activities published in 2005. It clearly states the appeal of the Azerbaijani government to send an assessment mission to Karabakh and the occupied adjacent territories, but due to the military aggression of Armenia, this mission was impossible to carry out. Azerbaijan has repeatedly expressed its attitude to implementation of the independent and objective mission of UNESCO in the liberated territories and even called for accelerating this process,” Abdullayeva noted.
"Regarding the statement of Yerevan that it does not object to of such mission, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry expresses hope that the mission will be carried out in the near future and the results of targeted policy of destruction of historical, cultural and religious heritage of Azerbaijan, pursued by Armenia in Azerbaijan’s territory for decades, will be revealed, the MFA spokesperson added.