Tuesday, February 15 2022 18:07

ArmInfo. UNESCO continues working to send an Independent Technical Mission to Nagorno Karabakh. This was stated in the press service of UNESCO.

"We continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission  within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be  possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in  place. So discussions are still ongoing", Thomas Mallard, Press  Officer at UNESCO, said, Armenpress reports.

Considering the fact that on 7th of December, 2021, the International  Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to "take all necessary  measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration  affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to  churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks,  cemeteries and artifacts", as a provisional measure in the context of  Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All  Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), how does the  organization assess the mentioned actions by Azerbaijan's government  regarding the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno Karabakh, UNESCO  said "heritage and history shouldn't be the subject of any political  instrumentalization".  "We urge all our Member States, all over the  world, to respect this principle", UNESCO Press Officer told  Armenpress.   Back on November 20, 2020, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay   announced the readiness of the organization to send a mission to  Karabakh to help restore the cultural and historical heritage of the  region. And already in December of the same year, Assistant  Director-General of UNESCO Ernesto Ottone noted that the organization  "so far is only waiting for Azerbaijan's response so that UNESCO can  continue to work with sending a mission." In turn, the Azerbaijani  Foreign Ministry, in a communique issued on December 22, 2020, called  on UNESCO not to politicize the issue of protecting cultural heritage  in Karabakh and stated 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 delayed by the  Azerbaijani side and against this background, in the territories of  Nagorno-Karabakh, which have come under the control of Azerbaijan,  acts of vandalism are being committed, Armenian cultural and  historical monuments are being destroyed, and the identity of the  monuments is being falsified.