On November 11, Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandyan participated in the 37^th UNESCO General Conference in Paris, reports the RA MFA press office to “Hayern Aysor”. During the conference, the participants will sum up the activities of the UNESCO in the past two years and will discuss the main areas of activities to be carried out in the next two years.

In his speech, Minister Nalbandyan mentioned that Armenia highly appreciates the UNESCO’s goal to promote inter-cultural dialogue, understanding and tolerance in the world.

Minister Nalbandyan particularly mentioned: “In May 2013, Armenia assumed chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, making the fight against xenophobia, hate speech and intolerance its number one priority.

In a time when protection and dissemination of human rights are the fundamental concept for the civilized world, the intolerance towards the values that belong to another civilization, the intentional, consistent and ongoing damage and elimination of cultural and religious heritage must be condemned with the same determination that violence against human beings is condemned.”

According to the minister, an overt manifestation of such crime is Azerbaijan’s eradication of thousands of cross-stones made by Armenian masters in the 9^th-16^th centuries in Nakhichevan. “Several thousands of such medieval cross-stones were eradicated under the supervision of the Azerbaijani government, and now that territory has turned into a military base in accordance with the government’s plan. In relation to this act of vandalism, the 16^th ICOMOS General Assembly declared that “this heritage that used to have its worthy place in the heritage of world treasures can no longer be transmitted to the future generations”.

Our numerous calls, as well as the attempts several international organizations to send international fact-finding missions to Nakhichevan were ignored and denied by Azerbaijan”, Nalbandyan underlined.

“In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UNESCO’s Convention on Prevention of Discrimination in Education it is mentioned that “Education must disseminate mutual understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups”. Taking into consideration UNESCO’s unique role in the field of education, we urge the organization to create within the framework of educational programs a monitoring mechanism that will study and assess the textbooks of member countries, especially the history and social science textbooks and pay special attention to the exclusion of racism and xenophobia.

The Armenian history, culture and heritage, which have been preserved for more than thirty centuries, are now being distorted and transformed in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan continues to recompose its own history by appropriating or eradicating the heritage of other cultures in their territory. In addition, the country does that by making the cultural heritage of neighboring nations its own. A country that appeared on the political map of the world less than a 100 years ago has cultural and territorial demands from a nation and country that has a history tracing back to millennia”, the FM mentioned.