15:10,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS. UNESCO continues working to send an Independent Technical Mission to Nagorno Karabakh, the UNESCO Press Office said in response to the query of ARMENPRESS, commenting on the alarms about the cases of distortion and destruction of the Armenian historical-cultural heritage in the territories of the Republic of Artsakh which have come under the Azerbaijani control after the 2020 war.

UNESCO hopes that this mission will be possible soon.

“We continue working to send a UNESCO Independent Technical Mission within the framework of the 1954 Convention. We hope that it will be possible soon, but for the moment the necessary conditions are not in place. So discussions are still ongoing”, Thomas Mallard, Press Officer at UNESCO, said.

Considering the fact that on 7th of December, 2021, the International Court of Justice has ordered Azerbaijan to “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts”, as a provisional measure in the context of Application of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (Armenia v. Azerbaijan), how does the organization assess the mentioned actions by Azerbaijan’s government regarding the Armenian cultural heritage of Nagorno Karabakh, UNESCO said “heritage and history shouldn’t be the subject of any political instrumentalization”.

“We urge all our Member States, all over the world, to respect this principle”, it said.