HRC 49: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights: Delivered by Mrs. Zoya Stepanyan, First Secretary

09 March, 2022

HRC 49: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights

Delivered by Mrs. Zoya Stepanyan, First Secretary

Mr. President,

Armenia warmly welcomes the Special Rapporteur Ms. Alexandra Xanthaki and congratulates for her appointment to that post.

We thank Special Rapporteur for conceptualizing her vision and priorities in the Report. Many elements of the Report resonate strongly with immense challenges and risks that cultural heritage in our region is facing. We strongly believe that the UN human rights machinery, together with specialized agencies has a duty to call for accountability to protect cultural rights of individuals and peoples as a part of wider preventive mandate.

The blunt destruction of the indigenous Armenian heritage in Nagorno Karabakh by Azerbaijan have been reported by international watchdogs, such as the Human Rights Watch.

The communication of previous SR on Cultural rights on this grave situation remained simply unanswered by Azerbaijan. Moreover, right after International Court of Justice made a ruling against Azerbaijan, inter alia ordering to preserve the Armenian heritage, the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan announced that a working group is set up to erase Armenian inscriptions from the churches and monasteries. This is how Azerbaijan addresses the concerns of your predecessor, madam Special Rapporteur, and this is how Azerbaijan implements the orders of the ICJ. It didn’t come as a surprise when the UNESCO officially announced that Azerbaijan hinders the access to Nagorno Karabakh.

I thank you.

On September 16, 2021, the Republic of Armenia instituted proceedings against Azerbaijan before the ICJ concerning the Application of the ICERD, requesting provisional measures, inter alia in relation to Armenian cultural and religious heritage, as a matter of extreme urgency. The Court ruled, that Azerbaijan must, and I quote, "Take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration towards Armenian cultural heritage, including churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts".

Right of Reply

Mr. President,

Armenia asked for the floor to reply to the remarks voiced here by Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan continuously and persistently destroys, damages and misappropriates the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh.

In 2020 the Human Rights Watch referred to the deliberate attack against the Holy Savior (Ghazanchetsots) Cathedral in the city of Shushi, as a possible war crime. Another Armenian church in Shushi was at least partially destroyed. Moreover, recently the social accounts of Azerbaijani users disseminated a video showing that the parish building of this church is turned to a restaurant. The complete demolition of the Armenian Holy Mother of God Church near the town of Mekhakavan was documented by the BBC reporters.

There are a number of videos and photographs depicting the desecration and demolition of Armenian monuments, cross-stones and cemeteries. The destruction of 18th-century cemetery of the Sghnakh village and the 19th century cemetery of Mets Tagher in May and June 2021 are just two examples.

Azerbaijan has never made a secret out of its intention to use the cultural destruction and misappropriation as a mean of demographic engineering of Nagorno-Karabakh and completely distorting its cultural identity. Particularly the publicly pronounced plans for construction of new mosques in Hadrut and Karin Tak villages and rebuilding of the historic center of Hadrut speak for themselves. Both villages never had any Azerbaijani population before they were occupied by armed forces of Azerbaijan in 2020. Azerbaijan also announced a tender for demolition of buildings in occupied town of Shushi, including the buildings of Parliament and Cultural house.

On 21 December 2020 Assistant UNESCO Director-General stated that the response of Azerbaijan was still awaited for the UNESCO to proceed with the dispatching of a mission to the field. Apparently, Azerbaijan strives at concealing its wrongdoings from the international community.

The International Court of Justice ruled, that Azerbaijan must, and I quote, "Take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration towards Armenian cultural heritage, including churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts".

In its extremely frivolous reading of the Court’s ruling, Azerbaijan announced in this Council several days ago that Court didn’t oblige it to refrain from placing impediments on protection and preservation of Armenian cultural heritage. This was a very loud statement of intention and we heard it very clearly.

I thank you.

Second Right of reply

President,

Armenian takes the floor again to reply to Azerbaijan.

We would like to call for the attention of the Council to crimes that are unfolding as we speak. The methods, the tactics and the aims haven’t change for decades. Since the end of 90s Azerbaijan destroyed 89 medieval churches, 5 840 decorated cross-stones (khachkars), and 22 000 historical tombstones in Nakhijevan, in one region alone. This policy was denounced by numerous international structures such as International Council on Monuments and Sites and the European Parliament. In a stark contrast Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh have been renovating and refurbishing mosques.

At this moment nearly 2000 objects of Armenian historical and cultural property have come under Azerbaijani control. This includes 161 Armenian churches, more than 10 Chapels, 52 castles and fortresses, 591 khachkars (engraved cross-stones).

Today, Azerbaijan employs the tactics of appropriation of the cultural and religious sites, perused by the way of distortion of the identity of the indigenous Armenian heritage, by putting forward anti-scientific and purely politicized narratives. The indigenous Armenian origin of the religious sites is supported not only by vast historiographic evidence but is also verifiable by their strict adherence to the distinctive architectural features, canons and warship practices of the Armenian Apostolic Church, as well as by the thousands of the inscriptions in the old Armenian language on those churches and other places of worship, which present the history of the construction of those monuments. Azerbaijani leadership declares them all fake.

I thank you.

MFA RA
official website

Dual citizenship

Electronic visa

Visa applications