Thursday, April 6 2017 12:17

ArmInfo.Republic of Armenia Civic Coalition in Support to UN Charter  appealed  to Antonio Gutteris, UN  Secretary General  with a statement in respect to nomination of Pollad Bulbuloglu at the post of UNESCO Director General. 

The statement particularly  reads as follows:  As the Republic of  Armenia  Civic Coalition in Support of the UN Charter, we felt  extreme surprise and indignation receiving the news of nomination of  Polad Murtuza oglu Mammadov, known under the nickname Bulbuloglu, to  the post of Director-General of UNESCO.Regardless of his political  agenda, ethnicity, race or religion, Polad Bulbuloglu throughout his  career,showed a personal character with no respect for moral  integrity, humanitarian and cultural values or diversity. If  Bulbuloglu is elected as Director-General of UNESCO, he will set a  precedent by being the first Director-General in the history of  UNESCO who has destruction of UNESCO Cultural Heritage of Humanity in  his resume. The mere nomination of Bulbuloglu could set a very  dangerous precedent and jeopardize all that UNESCO stands for. For  eighteen consecutive years Polad Bulbuloglu's acted as the Minister  of Culture of Azerbaijan (from 1988 to 2006) which were filled with  numerous crimes against cultural values of the South Caucasus region  as well as his own people were registered. During his tenure as a  Minister, dozens of thousands Armenian Cross-Stones /Khachkars/  (inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible  Cultural Heritage of Humanity) were systematically and methodically  destroyed in a medieval (historically Armenian) cemetery in the  Djulfa region of Nakhijevan, while ten European MEP's were denied  access to the area. Various satellite imagery studies (such as those  conducted by the American Association for the Advancement of Science  in 2009 and by the International Council on Monuments and Sites in  2003 and 2006- 2007) serve as undeniable proof of khachkars being  destroyed. Meanwhile Bulbuloglu, the man charged with protecting the  cultural values and diversity of Azerbaijan, has never uttered a  single word of disapproval and has made no efforts to stop these  atrocities.

Polad Bulbuloglu is also should be kept accountable for the forced  assimilation of ethnic minorities of Azerbaijan, for creation of  deliberate obstacles on the way of preservation of languages and  culture of Lezgin, Talysh, Avar, Tat, Tatar, Tsakhur, Udin, Kurd and  Armenian minorities. The 2007 Report of The European  ommission  against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) is a good indicator of the  state he had left Azerbaijan in as a result of his eighteen-year-old  tenure as the Minister of Culture. Moreover, his tenure has been  marked by a culture of oppression of those in the Azerbaijani  intellectual and cultural elite, including writers, artists, and  journalists who had dared to defy the cultural and  political-historical agenda of the government.  We, as the RA Civic  Coalition in Support of the UN Charter, without any political or  national agenda in mind, believe that Polad Bulbuloglu, based on his  personal character derived from the precedents of his activities  throughout his career, if elected as the Director-General of UNESCO,  will shatter the very foundations on which UNESCO is built and dark  ages of gross negligence and bias regarding cultural and human values  worldwide shall be upon us.  As we have not seen any reasonable  explanation to this unacceptable choice and having in mind the  serious repercussions which the election of Polad Bulbuloglu could  have on the prestige and authority of the distinguished international  organization, we call to take necessary actions to prevent this  disastrous development both for UNESCO, for the South Caucasus and  the World Culture. "