(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Sabina Mammadli read more Western Azerbaijani Community urged UNESCO to send a
fact-finding mission to Armenia to assess the state of Azerbaijani
cultural heritage there, Azernews reports.
In the letter addressed to UNESCO Director-General Audrey
Azoulay, the community also called on the organization to assess
Armenia's level of compliance with its international obligations
relating to the protection of cultural heritage and cultural
rights.
Expressing concern with the destruction of Azerbaijani cultural
heritage in Armenia, the community stated its readiness to
collaborate with UNESCO in carrying out activities aimed at
assessing, restoring, preserving, and protecting Azerbaijani
cultural heritage in Armenia, and ensuring the cultural rights of
Azerbaijanis expelled from Armenia to access and enjoy their
cultural heritage.
The appeal informed that all Azerbaijanis were expelled from
Armenia, where they once constituted the absolute majority,
stressing that Azerbaijani historical and cultural heritage,
including mosques and graveyards, were destroyed in Armenia. It was
noted that the Armenian government destroyed and damaged
Azerbaijani tangible and intangible culture before, during and in
the aftermath of the military aggression of Armenia against
Azerbaijan.
“The driving force for the destruction of Azerbaijani cultural
heritage has been the systematic policy of racial discrimination by
the Government of Armenia aimed at creating a mono-ethnic and
mono-cultural space, a notorious objective that has unfortunately
become the reality in this country,” the appeal read.
The letter pointed out that the only surviving mosque in
Armenia, the Blue Mosque in Yerevan, is misrepresented as 'a
Persian mosque' despite the fact that it was built and for
centuries had been attended by Azerbaijanis.
Besides, it was underlined that the Tapabashi quarter of
Yerevan, the last remaining trace of Azerbaijani culture, is now
under threat of total annihilation.
“The Goycha Ashiq school, the backbone of the Art of Azerbaijani
Ashiq, itself inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the
Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, took an irreplaceable
loss due to Armenia's ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanis of the
Goycha district, in nowadays Armenia. The Government of Armenia
even demonstratively destroyed the monument and the grave of Ashiq
Alasgar, a prominent representative of the Art of Azerbaijani
Ashiq, in his native Goycha,” the appeal highlighted.
The community called for the peaceful return of the expelled
Azerbaijanis from Armenia in safety and dignity, and the ensuring
of their rights upon return.
“Protection of cultural heritage is not only a requirement of
international humanitarian law but also a fundamental human right
as recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Enjoying cultural heritage is central to the concept of the
dignified return of expelled people. Ensuring cultural rights, i.e.
human creativity in all its diversity and the conditions for it to
be exercised, developed, made accessible, preserved, and protected,
is part of our fundamental rights, which Armenia has the obligation
to ensure prior to, during, and after our return to our homes,” the
letter continued.
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