– 17:39 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net – The Russian Federation stands for the arrangement of a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh as soon as possible, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told reporters on Friday, May 21.
Her comments came in response to a question about Russia's position as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group on the vandalism of Azerbaijan against Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh. UNESCO has said on multiple occasions that Azerbaijani is delaying its approval for a mission to Karabakh (Artsakh) to assess damage to cultural and religious sites.
“The preservation of cultural and historical heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent regions is regularly discussed in our contacts with Baku and Yerevan. The matter was discussed during the working visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Armenia and Azerbaijan in the first half of May. We support the early organization of a UNESCO mission to the region. We also work along the lines of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, ”Zakharova noted.
She added that a statement issued by the co-chairs on April 13 mentioned that the preservation and protection of religious and cultural heritage are among the issues that require additional efforts from Azerbaijan and Armenia.
During the recent military hostilities, Azerbaijani forces launched two targeted attacks on the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. Azerbaijan earlier "restored" a church by replacing its Armenian inscription with glass art. Furthermore, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev visited the region of Hadrut in territories occupied by Azerbaijan and declared his intention to "renovate" a 12th century Armenian church, which he claimed to "an Albanian church". Aliyev went so far as to accuse Armenians of leaving "fake inscriptions" in the Armenian language.