On April 4, during the plenary session of UNESCO’s Executive Board, Armenia’s Permanent Representative, Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan, delivered a speech. This was reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.
In his speech, the Ambassador addressed the provocative actions carried out by Azerbaijan these days, which violate the vital rights of the Armenians of Artsakh, including the right to education. It was noted that by keeping the gas pipeline supplying Nagorno-Karabakh blocked for several weeks, the peaceful population of Artsakh had been subjected to a real humanitarian disaster in winter cold weather conditions.
Ambassador Christian Ter-Stepanyan expressed concern regarding the incidents of March 24 and 25, when Azerbaijani military forces bombed Armenian civilian infrastructure and infiltrated the village of Parukh in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling on the international community to take measures to prevent the deterioration of the situation in the South Caucasus.
It was emphasized that the main goal of Azerbaijan’s policy of violence and terror against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh is the implementation of ethnic cleansing, which is accompanied by acts of destruction and vandalism against Armenian cultural values and attempts to appropriate Armenian cultural heritage.
It was noted that for more than a year, Azerbaijan has been blocking the implementation of a UNESCO expert mission in Nagorno-Karabakh to witness the destruction and other acts of vandalism committed against Armenian cultural heritage.
The Ambassador reaffirmed the need to act quickly in the current situation, calling on the UNESCO Director-General to continue efforts to send an independent expert mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories.
