Comment of the Press Service Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the visit of UNESCO missions to the region

As it is known, in the course of the meeting held on video conference format on 04 February 2022, with participation of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the President of the Republic of France Emmanuel Macron, the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, it was agreed to send separate missions of UNESCO to Azerbaijan and Armenia.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia is trying to distort the agreement reached on the visits of UNESCO missions to Azerbaijan and Armenia. We condemn the next attempt of the Armenian Foreign Ministry to evade the obligations assumed by its state.

As for the UNESCO technical mission to be organized to the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani side welcomed the implementation of this mission since day one, and all preparations for the mission to take place is being agreed between Azerbaijan and UNESCO in a bilateral format.

For more than 20 years, the Republic of Azerbaijan has repeatedly called on UNESCO to implement this mission and sent numerous letters in this regard.

Unfortunately, such mission was not carried out, and the only reason was Armenia. As an organization, UNESCO itself noted this fact in its 2005 report. Thus, emphasizing that the territories of Azerbaijan are under the occupation of Armenia, UNESCO acknowledged that the visit was prevented by Armenia.

As for the UNESCO mission to Armenia, the Azerbaijani side has repeatedly brought to the attention of UNESCO and the international community the facts of the destruction of the cultural heritage of Azerbaijani people in Armenia. Our country's NGOs have recently submitted detailed information on the destruction to UNESCO. Photographs and other evidence were included in the information about the destruction.

We believe that, it is necessary to send a mission to Armenia to investigate the facts submitted by Azerbaijan to UNESCO. We hope that, unlike the policy of preventing international missions from visiting the occupied territories in the past, Armenia this time will create conditions for the organization of the mission.