Armenia does not allow a UNESCO mission to assess the state of the Azerbaijani cultural heritage, Chairman of the Board of the Western Azerbaijan Community, MP Aziz Alakbarli said at an international conference “Ensuring the safe and dignified return of Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia: global context and a fair solution,” XQ informs.
According to Alakbarli, there is an increase in the number of refugees around the world.
“A significant part of refugees and internally displaced persons left their native lands due to armed conflicts. Armenia's actions led to the expulsion of Azerbaijanis from their native lands. As a result, today there is not a single Azerbaijani left in Armenia; our cemeteries, and cultural and religious monuments there have been destroyed. Ethnic cleansing has also harmed our intangible cultural heritage. Our traditions, way of life and social links have suffered significantly.
The Armenian government does not allow a UNESCO mission to be sent to the country to assess the state of the Azerbaijani cultural heritage. We sent an appeal to Pope Francis, who is a defender of interreligious dialogue, with a request to help us visit our holy places in Armenia. We previously made a similar request to the EU. Unfortunately, the European Union has shown complete disregard for the issue of destruction of our religious and cultural monuments,” Alakbarli said.
