ArmInfo. The statements of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, made by him on January 13 at a meeting with ISESCO Director General Salim bin Mohammed al- Malik, once again prove the existence of a serious threat to the Armenian cultural heritage in the territories controlled by Azerbaijan. This state cannot be the guarantor of the proper protection of Armenian cultural and religious monuments. This is stated in the commentary of the press secretary of the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan.
The representative of the RA MFA noted that the distortion of the originality of the Armenian heritage is an attempt at "cultural robbery", which is also a gross violation of the relevant international legal documents. Thousands of Armenian religious and secular monuments, Anna Naghdalyan continued, were created centuries before the creation of Azerbaijan, and have nothing to do with Azerbaijani identity. "Attempts to alienate these monuments from the Armenian people have no historical, theological or moral justification. It is noteworthy that Azerbaijan also put forward a" segregation thesis "to justify the destruction of Armenian khachkars in Nakhichevan, which indicates the danger of the practice of destroying original Armenian monuments. the scientific thesis about the presentation of the Christian heritage of Armenians or other peoples of the region as Albanians has no serious spread outside Azerbaijan and is not perceived by the international academic community, "the commentary says.
It is noteworthy that President Aliyev made a statement in the presence of the Director General of the Islamic Organization for Education, Science and Culture and tried to give a religious tone to the issues of protecting cultural heritage. Undermining the efforts of the international community to preserve the cultural heritage of Artsakh, Azerbaijan continues to create problems for international professional organizations, primarily UNESCO, to penetrate the region, accusing them of bias. "In fact, Azerbaijan irresponsibly exploits the religious factor in the case when Armenia has always advocated interreligious dialogue, civilizational cooperation, considering cultural heritage as a universal, universal value. The preservation of many Armenian historical, cultural and religious monuments under the control of Azerbaijan should become important part of the peace process, given the numerous facts of systematic destruction of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the past.In this context, the leadership of Azerbaijan should immediately put an end to attempts to appropriate, distort the identity of the Armenian churches, at least show due respect for cultural and religious monuments. cultural values of the Armenian people, violation of the rights of the Armenian people does not contribute to regional peace. Adequate protection of religious shrines can create preconditions for peace in the region, " - stated in the commentary of the official representative of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.