Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
March 29 2005

Azeris in Austria appeal to UNESCO

Baku, March 28, AssA-Irada

The Azerbaijani communities in Austria have adopted an appeal to
UNESCO over Armenians’ attempts to conduct geological excavations in
Shusha, an ancient Azerbaijani city currently occupied by Armenia.
The document indicates that the attempts at finding `the trace of
Armenians’ around the town of Shusha are groundless, the State
Committee on Azerbaijanis Living in Foreign Countries said.
`The research conducted over many years did not discover any facts on
Armenians’ alleged affiliation to the Upper Garabagh indigenous
population. On the contrary, it was indicated that Azerbaijanis are
the indigenous population of these territories’, the appeal said.
The Azeri communities thereby called on international organizations,
including UNESCO, to condemn Armenian researchers’ attempts to
distort history.
`This contradicts numerous international conventions, including the
1954 Hague Convention passed by UNESCO `for the Protection of
Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict’, the appeal said.
Azerbaijanis living in Austria also forwarded an appeal to
international organizations over March 31, Day of Azerbaijanis’
Massacre, indicating the facts of carnage and deportation policy
pursued by Armenians for many years.
In March 1918, 50,000 Azerbaijanis were brutally killed in Baku,
Shamakhi, Mughan, Guba, Nakhchivan and Lankaran, and 10,000 Azeris
ousted from their native land. In Baku alone, the number of people
killed by Armenian terrorists made up 30,000.
58 villages were wiped out in Shamakhi, while 122 in Guba, 150 in the
mountainous part of Garabagh, 115 in Zangazur, 211 in the Iravan
province and 92 villages in the Gars province. 7,000 people were
killed in Shamakhi alone, including 1,653 women and 965 children.*