HRC 48: Item 3 – General debate: Reply to the statement made by the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan: Delivered by Mr. Hernrik Yeritsyan, Third Secretary - Embassy of Armenia to Switzerland and Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN office at Geneva

HRC 48: Item 3 – General debate: Reply to the statement made by the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan: Delivered by Mr. Hernrik Yeritsyan, Third Secretary

22 September, 2021

September 22, 2021

HRC 48: Item 3 – General debate: Reply to the statement made by the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan

Delivered by Mr. Hernrik Yeritsyan, Third Secretary

President,

Armenia requested the floor to exercise its right of reply to the statement of the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan. We resolutely reject all allegations made.

On numerous occasions Armenia has welcomed the UNESCO’s fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and the wider region. UNESCO Assistant Director General was loud and clear, when he publicly stated that Azerbaijan’s response was still awaited for UNESCO to proceed with the sending of a mission to the field. It is our conviction that UNESCO should enjoy unfettered and unlimited access to any area. The dire condition of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage in the territories under the control of Azerbaijan require urgent international attention.

During the hostilities in Nagorno Karabakh in the fall 2020 Azerbaijan deliberately targeted and damaged Armenian cultural property and religious monuments. On 8 October 2020 the Cathedral of Shushi was attacked twice during half an hour by the guided missiles.

The Human Rights Watch referred to this attack as a war crime. It noted that the nature of the attack and choice of guided weapon “suggest that the church, a civilian object with cultural significance, was an intentional target despite the absence of evidence that it was used for military purposes”.

In another case a large, illuminated cross in Nagorno-Karabakh was bombed on two occasions by the aviation. The cross was destroyed in October 2020, after which the attacks ceased. There had been no military targets in the area.

In March 2021 the BBC investigated the complete annihilation of an Armenian church in the territory that had fallen under the control of Azerbaijan.

According to the satellite imagery another Church in Shushi – the St. John Baptist, was also demolished. The destruction of the church can be clearly seen on Google Maps in April 2021.

The video footages disseminated on social media by Azerbaijani users themselves show the deliberate destruction of Armenian cemeteries, cross stones and other monuments, including the ones dedicated to the heroes of the WWII.

The joint communication of the UN special procedure mandate holders requesting Azerbaijan to investigate the destruction of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage remained unanswered. There were numerous other evidences presented in international reports on the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage, including by the US State Department’s International Religious Freedom Report.

I thank you.

Second reply

President,

On February 2, a number of the UN human rights Special Procedure Mandate Holders issued a joint communication to Azerbaijan, requesting information about any investigation into 8 October 2020 attack on the Holy Savior Cathedral in Shushi. They underscored that the Cathedral is one of the largest Armenian churches in the world. They also sought indication when the site would be safe for the conduct of the services and ceremonies by the Armenian Apostolic Church to resume.

Azerbaijan did not respond to the communication of the UN experts. Moreover, it has demolished the domes of the Cathedral. With this unilateral ruthless intervention, Baku blatantly ignored the call of UN experts, thus once again demonstrating its utter contempt to the UN, the international community and international law. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom stated in this regard that this unilateral intervention was done without the input of Cathedral’s Armenian congregation and that “it is imperative that it and other sites are properly restored and maintained”.

As a result of the war Azerbaijan gained control over at least 1.456 Armenian monuments and more than 19.000 museum exhibits. These monuments and artifacts are now in danger of annihilation and misappropriation, given the numerous precedents of deliberate destruction and alteration of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage by Azerbaijan.

The most notorious case is the region of Nakhijevan, where, according to numerous credible reports, Azerbaijan destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 Armenian cross stones and over 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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