PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has expressed concern over the continuous anti-Armenian and warmongering rhetoric of the Azerbaijani authorities.

Mirzoyan raised the matter during a meeting with his Bulgarian counterpart Teodora Genchovska in Sofia on Tuesday, June 14.

He also raised Azerbaijan's provocative actions against Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh and drew his colleague's attention to the fact that in gross violation of the norms of international humanitarian law, Azerbaijan continues to hold Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages.

According to a statement from Yerevan, special emphasis was given to the prevention of Azerbaijan’s policy of distortion and destruction of the identity of Armenian monuments that are part of the universal cultural heritage in the territories fallen under Azerbaijani control due to the 44-day war. In this context, Mirzoyan stressed the urgency of a clear and targeted response of the international community, as well as the imperative of the involvement of relevant international organizations in Nagorno-Karabakh, especially the unimpeded implementation of UNESCO fact-finding mission.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.