BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7. Armenia destroyed 500 cemeteries, 391 mosques, 68 historical and seven architectural monuments belonging to Azerbaijanis, Chairman of the Health Committee of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Head of the Council of Elders of the Community of Western Azerbaijan, Academician Ahliman Amiraslanov said, Trend reports.
Amiraslanov made the remark at the opening ceremony of the 9th meeting of the National Commissions for UNESCO of the member countries of the International Organization Turkic Culture (TURKSOY).
According to him, Azerbaijan’s victory in the 2020 second Karabakh war not only ensured the return of internally displaced persons to the liberated territories, but also laid the foundation for return to the lands of Western Azerbaijan (historical lands of Azerbaijan located in modern-day Armenia’s territory).
"Our youth of Western Azerbaijani origin fought in the second Karabakh war with faith and love for the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, and with the words "Karabakh is Azerbaijan!". Some of them became martyrs, veterans, heroes,” the chairman noted. “After the victory, one of the main issues standing before us is return to Western Azerbaijan. We, as a nation, as people, have the right to return to our native lands.”
“We must again become the owners of the cultural heritage that belongs to our people and created by our ancestors over the millennia in the territory of Western Azerbaijan," he added.
Amiraslanov pointed out that the Concept of Return to Western Azerbaijan, developed by the Community, has already been adopted, and the concept of peaceful return is based on historical facts, principles of international convention and international law.
He reminded that at a meeting with Western Azerbaijanis [in December 2022], the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev emphasized that the Community of Western Azerbaijan should have a reliable digital platform, which should contain information about historical facts, palaces, mosques and cities destroyed by the Armenians, facts related to Azerbaijan's historical heritage erased by the Armenians.
According to Amiraslanov, the historical fact is that Azerbaijanis were completely expelled from Armenia, where they once constituted an absolute majority, and their historical and cultural heritage on the territory of modern Armenia, including mosques and cemeteries, was massively destroyed.
“The Azerbaijani cultural heritage in Armenia was almost completely destroyed without the impact of hostilities, in a pre-planned manner. The only surviving mosque in Armenia is the Blue Mosque in Yerevan, and then, misleading everyone, it’s deliberately called the ‘Persian mosque’,” Amiraslanov said.
In fact, those who built the Blue Mosque and performed rituals in it for centuries were Azerbaijanis, who at that time made up the absolute majority of Yerevan, the noted.
“The Armenian government continues to erase the last traces of Azerbaijani culture there. The Tapabashi quarter in Yerevan is the only fragment of the historical center of the city that has survived to this day. This quarter keeps the historical memory of Yerevan from the XVII-th century to the present day,” Amiraslanov noted.
The Tapabashi quarter, historically inhabited by Azerbaijanis, is now under the threat of extinction. Armenia's policy of discrimination and ethnic cleansing also had a devastating impact on the intangible cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, he further said.
According to him, the ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis in Goycha (currently district of Armenia) inflicted an incurable wound on the Ashig school of the district [Ashig means singer-poet and bard who accompanies his song with saz instrument], the cradle of Azerbaijani Ashig art, included by UNESCO in the list of intangible cultural heritage of mankind.
Armenians even destroyed the monument and the grave of the prominent representative of Azerbaijani Ashig art Ashig Alasgar in his native Goycha, Amiraslanov said.
“The destruction of Azerbaijani cultural heritage by Armenia violates our cultural rights,” he noted.
Violation of this right endangers stability, social cohesion and cultural identity and seriously impedes dialogue, peace and reconciliation as factors that aggravate regional security, he added.
"We are fighting for the safe and dignified return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to their homeland by peaceful means in accordance with the rights and fundamental freedoms recognized by the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for ensuring their collective and individual rights upon return,” Amiraslanov explained.
Sending a fact-finding mission to this country to assess the state of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan in this country, as well as how Armenia fulfills its international obligations to protect cultural heritage and cultural rights, will be an invaluable contribution to repairing the damage caused to the cultural heritage of mankind as a whole, and achieving lasting peace, Amiraslanov further said.
“The community of Western Azerbaijan is ready to cooperate with UNESCO in carrying out activities in Armenia to assess, restore, preserve and protect the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan, ensure the cultural rights of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to use their cultural heritage," Amiraslanov concluded.
The event has been organized by the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, together with the Institute of Development and Diplomacy of the ADA University in Baku.