Some areas of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Hadrut and Shushi, were cleansed of Armenians, Armenia’s Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan said during the session of the General Assembly of States participating in the UNESCO Convention On the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

The envoy expressed satisfaction with the decision to provide international support for the preservation of the folklore heritage of Armenia’s Syunik region, stressing that Armenia attaches great importance to the preservation of the cultural heritage of the region, which preserves the traces of the thousand-year history of the Armenians.

Christian Ter-Stepanyan expressed concern about the consequences of the aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan against Nagorno-Karabakh in the fall of 2020, as a result of which some areas of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Hadrut and Shushi, were cleansed of Armenia.

The permanent representative of Armenia, in particular, emphasized that as a result of the forced displacement of the population, their cultural heritage is also in serious danger.

He reaffirmed that the problem of preserving the intangible cultural heritage of the Armenian people of Nagorno-Karabakh continues to be in the focus of Armenia’s attention.