Azerbaijan ready to accept UNESCO mission, presidential aide says

Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan, Head of the Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev held meetings via videoconferencing with Nicolas Kassianides, Chief of Staff, Office of the UNESCO Director General, on February 15 and March 16, 2021.

The meetings were the result of the phone conversation between President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

The sides held discussions on a UNESCO mission invited to the liberated Azerbaijani territories in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1954 ‘On the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of an Armed Conflict’.

Noting that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to cooperation with UNESCO and is always open for constructive dialogue, Hajiyev, during the final video meeting, once again expressed the country's readiness to accept the organization’s mission to assess the damage caused to cultural and religious monuments in the liberated territories of Azerbaijan.

He mentioned crimes committed by Armenia against the cultural and religious heritage of the Azerbaijani people in the territories during almost 30 years of occupation.

The presidential aide stressed that Azerbaijan has exemplary experience in the protection of cultural and religious monuments, and the country has contributed to the restoration of cultural and religious monuments at the international level.

Hajiyev also reminded that on the initiative of the First Vice President of Azerbaijan, President of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation Mehriban Aliyeva, the Foundation’s delegation and representatives of the country’s religious communities have recently visited the Vatican, and within the framework of the visit, a new cooperation agreement was signed between the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and the Archaeological Council of the Holy See for the restoration of the catacombs of Saint Comodilia.

News.Az 

You Might Also Like