Yerevan Says UNESCO Mission to Artsakh is ‘Urgent Priority’

The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi is being dismantled by Azerbaijanis

Armenia said on Thursday that a UNESCO fact-finding mission to Artsakh is an urgent priority.

“We consider the implementation of a fact-finding mission in the Nagorno Karabakh conflict zone, proposed by the UNESCO Director-General after the end of the 2020 Karabakh War, an urgent  priority,” Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan said on Thursday, adding that this mission corresponds to the 1954 Hague Convention on protection of property in the event of an armed conflict.

“The cases of vandalism against the Armenian monuments, as well as the recent announcement of the Azerbaijani culture ministry on creating a working group aimed at distorting the identity of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage prove that such danger is more than real,” added Hunanyan.

“We view the proposal of the visit of the UNESCO delegation to Yerevan and Baku exclusively within the frames of the aforementioned mission proposed by the UNESCO Director-General”, the spokesperson said,” said Hunanyan.