Zakharova: Russia stands for the earliest possible organization of a  UNESCO mission to the region

ArmInfo.The topic of preserving the cultural and historical heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions is regularly discussed in our contacts both with official  Baku and with official Yerevan. The official representative of the  Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova announced this on May 21  during a weekly briefing.

According to her, in particular, it was touched upon during the  working visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Armenia  and Azerbaijan in the first half of May.

"We support the early organization of a UNESCO mission to the region.  We are working in the implementation of the statement adopted on  April 13 of this year by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, which states  that the preservation and protection of religious and cultural  heritage is one of the issues that require additional efforts from  Azerbaijan and Armenia. ", concluded Zakharova.

To note, on November 20, 2020, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay  announced the organization's readiness to send a mission to Karabakh  to help restore the cultural and historical heritage of the region.   In December last year, Deputy Director General of UNESCO Ernesto  Ottone noted that the organization "so far expects only a response  from Azerbaijan so that UNESCO can continue to work with the  direction of the mission in the field." In turn, the Azerbaijani  Foreign Ministry, in a communique circulated on December 22, called  on UNESCO not to politicize the issue of protecting cultural heritage  in Karabakh and said that Baku "is open to a constructive dialogue to  discuss the details of organizing the mission."

The Russian Foreign Ministry has also repeatedly stated that Moscow  is counting on the visit of a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh in  the near future.

However, the issue is deliberately dragged out by the Azerbaijani  side, and against this background, acts of vandalism are being  committed in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh, which are under the  control of Azerbaijan, and Armenian cultural and historical monuments  are being destroyed. Azerbaijan wiped out the Armenian church of  Zoravar Surb Astvatsatsin in the Karabakh village of Mekhakavan  (Jebrail), which was intact after the end of hostilities. The  Azerbaijani authorities are now changing the historical appearance of  the Cathedral of the Holy All-Savior Ghazanchetsonts.