ArmInfo.Speaking at an event marking the 30th anniversary of Armenia's membership in UNESCO, in Paris, France, Armenia's Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vahram Dumanyan voiced hope that UNESCO will spare no effort to ensure protection of the Armenian cultural heritage in the territories under Azerbaijan's control.
Mr Dumanyan said that the Armenian cultural heritage is on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
"The present-day geopolitical challenges, threats to cultural values during military conflicts and actual destruction of them must make us spare no effort to fully employ international mechanisms for protection of cultural heritage. The Armenian people has tragic experience of losing its cultural and historical values. Regrettably, we are now witnessing regular instances of misappropriation and destruction of the values, and the criminals even post video records on social media," Mr Dumanyan said.
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."