European Parliament adopts resolution condemning the destruction of Nagorno-Karabakh's cultural heritage
19:31,
YEREVAN, 10 MARCH, ARMENPRESS. The European Parliament adopted a resolution on the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, ARMENPRESS reports the resolution was adopted with 635 votes in favor, 2 against and 42 abstentions.
Armenian MP Arman Yeghoyan wrote on his Facebook page that the resolution strongly condemns Azerbaijan's ongoing policy of erasing, denying the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh and around it, violating international law, and the recent decision of the International Court of Justice.
It states that over the past thirty years, Azerbaijan has committed irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage, especially in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, where 89 Armenian churches, 20,000 graves and more than 5,000 tombstones have been destroyed.
The resolution emphasizes that the elimination of traces of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh is carried out not only for damaging or destroying it, but also for falsifying history by presenting it as the so-called Caucasian-Albanian, stating that on February 3, 2022 Minister Anar Karimov announced the establishment of a working group responsible for eliminating "traces invented by Armenians on Albanian religious temples."
The resolution admits that the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage is part of a wider systemic, state-level policy of anti-Armenianism, hatred of Armenians, encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities, including glorification of violence, anti-humanism, and territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia, threatening peace and security in the South Caucasus.
The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to renounce its maximalist goals, belligerent approaches, territorial claims to Armenia and to engage in good faith in the negotiations on the final status of Nagorno Karabakh under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to fully comply with the interim order of the International Court of Justice, namely to "refrain from suppressing the Armenian language, destroying the Armenian cultural heritage or eliminating the historical Armenian cultural presence by other means, or restricting the entry of Armenians to those sites”, stressing that any new case of destruction or alteration of cultural heritage must be immediately addressed by the international community.
It calls on the European Commission to use all available levers to prevent the destruction and alteration of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the prevention of vandalism.