The Artsakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement regarding the visit of Azerbaijan’s president to the occupied territories of Artsakh:
“Displaying an absolutely disrespectful attitude toward the ongoing efforts aimed at the lasting settlement of the Azerbaijani-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, accompanied by his wife, Azerbaijan’s First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, and other high-ranking officials, visited the occupied Hadrut region of the Republic of Artsakh. While in the occupied territories, President Aliyev personally instructed the officials accompanying him to erase medieval Armenian inscriptions from the walls of churches and monuments located in the occupied territories.
Such official visits are the embodiment of Azerbaijan’s Armenophobic and belligerent policy, as well as its future aggressive plans.
The Republic of Artsakh has repeatedly informed the international community about the cultural terrorism carried out by Azerbaijan at the state level, the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in the territories under its military occupation, and the crudest advancement of its genocidal expansionist policy.
That genocidal policy is a crime against humanity, a gross violation of international norms, treaties, resolutions and agreements, and a threat to the entire civilized world.
We call on the relevant international organizations to take all necessary measures to prevent the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage and to condemn Azerbaijan’s genocidal policy. Inaction and indifference can have unpredictable consequences.”
