BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 22. The Declaration of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) includes a clause on the destruction of Azerbaijani monuments in Armenia, Trend reports.
On October 22, the 12th meeting of the Ministers of Information of the OIC member states was held in Istanbul, Türkiye. The meeting, which was attended by authorized ministers and representatives from 57 countries, was also attended by a delegation from Azerbaijan.
The event discussed such important issues as strengthening cooperation between the Member States in the field of information, modern and global challenges, joint fight against fake news and disinformation.
As a result of the meeting, the Istanbul Declaration and the corresponding resolution were adopted. Azerbaijan has included the following points in these documents:
- call on the Information Department of the OIC General Secretariat to organize trips of journalists to Member States facing serious problems, such as the problem of mines, military aggression and the destruction of Islamic cultural heritage as a result of conflicts.
- in connection with the aggression of Armenia against Azerbaijan, call for a wider dissemination of this information in the media and social networks in order to prevent such cases of deliberate destruction and insult of historical and cultural monuments associated with the Islamic religion.
- call on media organizations in Member States to raise awareness of acts of deliberate destruction and desecration of Islamic cultural and religious heritage in non-Muslim countries, especially in areas where local Muslim communities are being ethnically cleansed.
The last paragraph notes the deliberate destruction of traces of cultural and religious monuments that historically belonged to the Azerbaijani people on the territory of Armenia.
As you know, Armenia has committed large-scale crimes in the historical lands of Azerbaijan. The destruction of monuments and cemeteries in Western Azerbaijan, including the attack on our heritage in the Tepebashi district of Yerevan, is part of the process of destroying our monuments. In addition to erasing traces of Azerbaijanis on their historical and ethnic lands, Armenians also carried out genocide against toponyms. The leadership of the mono-ethnic state changed the names of 703 settlements where Azerbaijanis lived to Armenian toponyms. As a result of the purposeful policy pursued by Armenia for many years, the cultural heritage of our people with a long history on the territory of Armenia is under the threat of complete disappearance, many samples of cultural heritage have been destroyed. As a result of the deportation of Azerbaijanis who had lived in the territory of present-day Armenia for centuries during the 20th century, not a single Azerbaijani remained in this country. The cultural genocide carried out by Armenia was accompanied by ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis. Even today, Armenians rob, destroy and change the cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people.
The inclusion in the statement and resolution adopted in Istanbul of a clause on the deliberate destruction of traces of cultural and religious monuments belonging to the Azerbaijani people is very important in terms of drawing the attention of the world, including non-Muslim countries, to this issue. This document can serve as a basis for raising the issue of the historical and cultural heritage of Azerbaijan being destroyed by Armenians in international organizations, for discussing the issue on world platforms. Earlier, Azerbaijan applied to UNESCO with a request to send a mission to study the state of the Azerbaijani heritage in Armenia and cultural monuments destroyed in the lands under Armenian occupation. Unfortunately, no steps have been taken in this direction by this organization.
It should be noted that it was decided to hold the next meeting of the ministers of information of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Azerbaijan.
