TODAY.AZ / Politics

SAIFF condemns historical monuments’ destruction in occupied lands

29 January 2015 [14:15] - TODAY.AZ

/By AzerNews/

By Sara Rajabova

A Norway-based organization has voiced support for Azerbaijan`s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which emerged over Armenia’s territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor.

Sagene International and Multicultural Volunteer Center SAIFF, which unites 25 non-governmental organizations, has issued a statement supporting Azerbaijan`s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, AzerTag news agency reported.

“The statement says Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions,” according to Ramil Aliyev, chairman of the Norwegian Azerbaijani Youth Organization.

The statement also emphasizes purposeful destruction of the historical monuments in occupied territories.

“Prior to the Armenian invasion, there were more than 600,000 historical and 1,050 ancient monuments in Karabakh. As a result of occupation 36 educational institutions in Shusha, 435 cultural and religious centers, ten museums and fortresses were destroyed,” the statement reads.

SAIFF also pointed to the fact that the invaders destroyed historical and cultural monuments in these territories purposefully, thus making an ethnic cleansing there.

It noted that these facts contradict the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of armed Conflict with Regulations for the Execution of the Convention 1954 and UNESCO convention concerning the protection of the world cultural and natural heritage approved in 1972.

Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a precarious cease-fire in 1994. Since then, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh, defying international calls and UN resolutions.

The first human dwellings like the well-known Azykh and Taghlar caves, the Garakopak and Uzarliktapa burial mounds, located in the occupied territories, are being used for military purposes. Most of them have been destroyed. Cemeteries, mausoleums, monuments, mosques, temples and monuments that once belonged to Caucasus Albania and other cultural heritage sites in the occupied regions of Shusha, Lachin, Kalbajar, Gubadli, Zangilan, and Fuzuli have been destroyed along with burial mounds in Khojaly, Aghdam, Aghdara, Fuzuli and Jabrayil.

After invading Azerbaijan's territories, Armenia has been pursuing a campaign of ruining cultural and historical monuments of Azerbaijani people. The destruction of Azerbaijani cultural monuments in the occupied territories has been continuing to this day. The invaders are carrying out large-scale archeological excavations, destroying burial mounds.

The total damage inflicted to Azerbaijan amounts to $6.7 billion, according to approximate calculations based on the documents of 1994. The figure excludes items of intangible heritage, and it is impossible to determine the immense moral value of these destroyed, ancient and irreplaceable cultural monuments of the Azerbaijan people.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/138510.html

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