BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 10. The liberated territories of Azerbaijan have 705 registered monuments of history and culture, and also numerous immovable objects of historical and archaeological heritage without state registration, Deputy Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Saadat Yusifova said, Trend reports.
Yusifova made the remark at an international conference themed "Viable and sustainable heritage cities" organized by the "Icherisheher" State Historical and Architectural Reserve in collaboration with the Organization of Turkic States (OTS).
"The Azerbaijani state has taken all necessary steps, but it was not possible to save the cultural heritage from destruction due to Armenia's 30-year occupation policy against Azerbaijan," she noted.
The official pointed out that monitoring of the liberated territories showed that 95 percent of more than 2,600 samples of cultural heritage were destroyed, vandalized, or appropriated.
"Although three years have passed since the cessation of the occupation factor, the monitoring is still ongoing. The reason is the massive mining of territories by Armenia. It will take many years and substantial financial resources to clear these areas of mines," Yusifova added.
Following the 2020 second Karabakh war, the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan has launched preliminary monitoring of cultural property in the liberated Azerbaijani lands and the results of the initial monitoring were officially submitted to UNESCO.
The monitoring report has also included photos of the destruction of all Azerbaijani religious and cultural monuments as well as the desecration of local mosques in the territories once occupied by Armenia.