"We Call on the International Community to Take Immediate Action": Artsakh Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh has issued a statement regarding Azerbaijan's intent to appropriate Armenian cultural heritage.

The statement reads: "We strongly condemn the decision of the Azerbaijani authorities to establish a special commission whose work, according to subsequent statements by officials, will aim to erase traces of Armenian heritage from cultural and religious monuments located in the territories of Artsakh occupied by Azerbaijan. This step convincingly reaffirms the obvious fact that Armenian cultural heritage under the control of Azerbaijani authorities is at real risk of complete destruction or disconnection from its historical roots.

We have repeatedly noted that Azerbaijan's distortion of history and cultural genocide is part of a broader anti-Armenian policy that has been systematically conducted for decades. While in the early stages of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, manipulations with history and culture served as a justification for the forced displacement of the Armenian population from the former Azerbaijan SSR, they are now aimed at legitimizing the consequences of Azerbaijan's illegal use of military force against Artsakh.

Both in the occupied territories and in Azerbaijan, the eradication of Armenian presence through the falsification of history, destruction of Armenian cultural monuments, and renaming of indigenous place names, in essence, continues Azerbaijan's aggression by other means.

There is a clear conviction in the international community and expert circles that the destruction of cultural monuments is an offense against the dignity, values, and ideals of peoples, aimed at undermining the ability of a nation to withstand historical challenges and develop. By declaring war on Armenian history and culture, Azerbaijan pursues precisely this aim.

The destruction of Armenian cultural heritage is not only an attempt to deprive the people of Artsakh of their rights, including their right to culture, but also poses a challenge to the international community and a threat to peace and security. Over the past decades, the international community, through the UN, has responded to the increasingly frequent cases of deliberate destruction of cultural monuments during conflicts, developing a stance that considers the destruction of cultural objects as a war crime and equates it with acts of terrorism.

The creation of a special commission in Azerbaijan that will transform Armenian cultural and religious monuments for their subsequent appropriation is a gross violation of the interim measures ordered by the UN International Court of Justice. They require official Baku to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration related to Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, sites of interest, cemeteries, and artifacts. This decision is binding on Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan's refusal to comply demonstrates its intention to disrupt, even at a local level, the system of international relations that ensures international peace and security. Once again, we call on the international community and specialized international organizations to take immediate necessary actions to compel Baku to fulfill its international obligations to preserve and respect the cultural heritage of the Armenian people, and to fully implement the decision on interim measures from the UN International Court of Justice."