BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 12. French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noel Barrot, answering a question from MP Etienne Blanc in the upper house of parliament - the Senate - regarding the religious and cultural heritage of Armenia on May 6, presented the events which took place in the region in a completely distorted form, Member of the Azerbaijani Parliament's Committee on Legal Policy and State Building, MP Nizami Safarov said at the parliament's plenary meeting today, Trend reports.
According to Safarov, after nearly 30 years, rather than supporting the initialing of a draft peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia, the opening of transport communications between the two states, and the consistent completion of work on the delimitation and demarcation of borders, the forces that exhibit an anti-Azerbaijani stance are only trying to sow seeds of hatred and escalate the situation again.
"On the political, legal, and diplomatic level, the Azerbaijani side has repeatedly informed the international community that the region called 'Nagorno-Karabakh' doesn't exist on the territory of the country and that it is unacceptable to describe the Karabakh economic region, which is a sovereign territory of Azerbaijan, with this term.
In his speech, Barrot referred to the alleged 'loss of about 40 objects of Armenian cultural heritage starting in 2021.' Why didn't Western circles, which turned a blind eye to the systematic and large-scale destruction and theft of Azerbaijani cultural heritage committed by Armenia in Karabakh during the 30-year occupation and described as war crimes, express their concern?
The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two additional protocols were grossly violated, resulting in the destruction of more than 400 monuments in Karabakh, 63 out of 67 mosques were razed to the ground and subjected to insults, and 22 museums with 100,000 historical artifacts were destroyed. As in other issues, double standards and a selective approach are still observed in relation to problems related to cultural heritage," he said.
The MP recalled that all historical and religious monuments located in the territories of Azerbaijan belong to our national and cultural heritage, regardless of their origin, secular or religious affiliation, they are reliably protected, and no foreign force can interfere in matters that fall within the sovereign powers of the Azerbaijani state.
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