MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
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PRESS AND INFORMATION DEPARTMENT
375010 Telephone: +37410. 544041 ext 202
Fax: +37410. 562543
Email: [email protected]:
PRESS RELEASE
10-10-2005
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. VARTAN OSKANIAN
MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA
AT THE 33rd UNESCO GENERAL CONFERENCE
PARIS, OCTOBER 7, 2005
Mr. President,
Congratulations on your election, and we look forward to working with you as
we have with President Omolewa. Congratulations also to the Director-General
with whom we look forward to working for a long time to come.
At a time when the world is faced with new types of violence and must
therefore seek new ways to find peace, UNESCO is faced with the hardest
challenge of all: to create the defenses of peace in the minds of men. For
60 years, this organization has promoted education, science and culture
because we know that it has been through education, science and culture that
ALL our civilizations have been nurtured and have flourished. Education,
science and culture cultivate peace and are its fruits.
Each of us recognizes this in our own lands, in our own countries.
In Armenia, Education gave us our first university eight centuries ago.
Today, our education enrollment and literacy rate is among the best in the
world.
Ten centuries ago, Science provided us the tools with which to study
medicinal herbs under our feet, and the stars over our head.
But it is our culture that has saved us, defined us, formed our character.
My people have lived in Diaspora for far longer than we have had a state,
and we have contributed to and learned from cultures across the globe.
In Singapore, we have a church which is 200 years old. The one in Dakka is
even older. In Macao, the cemetery markers are memorials to Armenian
merchants from the 1600s. In Bangkok, the cemeteries are newer, but only
slightly. The local governments all protect and maintain these cultural
monuments consciously and generously, because they understand that these
monuments of a culture long gone are theirs as much as ours.
There is a similar cultural heritage in Europe and the Middle East. From the
tombs of Armenian medieval kings here in Paris to ancient communities in
Poland and Ukraine, the traces of a continuous Armenian presence in Europe
are guarded.
No better example exists than the Armenian Island of St. Lazaro, in Venice,
claimed equally by Armenians and Italians as part of their cultural
patrimony.
In Jerusalem, the old Armenian Quarter is an integral part of the Biblical
city’s past and future.
Throughout the various Arab countries of the Middle East, it is only the age
and quantity of Armenian structures that differ. The care and attention
which Armenians and their possessions receive is pervasive.
In our immediate neighborhood, Iran is home to cultural and religious
monuments built by Armenians over a millennium. The government of Iran
itself takes responsibility for their upkeep, and facilitates their
preservation by others.
Against this background then, we can only wish that our other neighbours
were equally tolerant and enlightened.
In Turkey, there are thousands of cultural monuments built and utilized by
Armenians through the centuries. Those structures today are not just symbols
of a lost way of life, but of lost opportunities. Those monuments which
represent the overlapping histories and memories of Armenians and Turks do
provide us the opportunity around which a cultural dialog can start and
regional cooperation can flourish.
Instead, those monuments which serve as striking evidence of centuries of
Armenian presence on those lands are being transformed or demolished. With
them go the memory and identity of a people.
But we are hopeful that there are changes in these attitudes and approaches,
and that Turkey is on the road to acknowledging its pluralistic past and
embracing its diversity today.
A few months ago, Turkish authorities began to actively encourage and
facilitate the expert renovation of a medieval jewel – the Armenian
monastery of Akhtamar. What is happening on this small island, not far from
our border, can be repeated again and again. Together, we can work to
rebuild the sole remaining monument in the legendary city of Ani, just on
the other side of the border, within easy view from Armenia. The medieval
city of a thousand and one churches is a cultural marvel that can pull
together and bind our two peoples.
Unfortunately Mr. Chairman, with our other neighbor, Azerbaijan, the effort
to do away with Armenians, which began even before Sovietization, continues
unabated. Now that there are no Armenians left in Azerbaijan, it is
religious and cultural monuments which remain under attack.
This assault on our memory, history, holy places and artistic creations
began long before the people of Nagorno Karabakh stood to demand
self-determination in order to assure their own security. It began long
before the government of Azerbaijan chose war as the response to the
rightful, peaceful aspirations of the people of Nagorno Karabakh.
Mr. Chairman,
Even in 1922, stone cross Armenian tombstone carvings, older than Europe’s
oldest churches, began to disappear in Nakhichevan. There was no war in the
years between 1998 and 2002 when 4000 of these giant sculptures were knocked
over, piled onto railroad cars and carted away under the Azerbaijani
government’s watchful eyes. There was no war in 1975 when a 7th century
Armenian church was completely demolished in the center of Nakhichevan, for
no reason other than to wipe out the memory of the Armenians who constituted
a majority there just decades earlier.
Mr. Chairman,
Cultural destruction can and is a potent weapon in campaigns of political
oppression and tyranny. In an era when new kinds of violence with new names
are exploited in political and ideological warfare, damaging or destroying
cultural or religious memory intentionally, consistently, repeatedly must be
labeled what it is – cultural terrorism – and it must be condemned with the
same resolve and determination as violence aimed against people.
Mr. Chairman,
Armenia already profits hugely from UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” program,
thanks to which our depository of ancient, unique manuscripts is being
digitized. In the Remember the Future program, we are honoured that some of
our ancient monuments are included in the World Heritage List. We are set to
ratify the Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage, and
are pleased that the traditional melodies of the Armenian reed duduk may be
included in the Masterpieces of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
What we want to work on next, Mr. Chairman, is the elaboration of a UNESCO
legal instrument which will hold accountable those involved in the
Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage.
Armenia attaches great importance to all of UNESCO’s initiatives in the
region. We believe in UNESCO’s dream of creating and educating societies to
believe in peace and to benefit from its dividends.
Thank you.