Ara Abramyan addressed to Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO

The Letter sent in the beginning of February this year, particularly states:

Dear Ms. Director-General,

I would like to express my deepest honor and gratitude for not remaining indifferent to the situation related to the destructive actions of Azerbaijan towards the Armenian cultural heritage, Christian churches and other monuments of architecture that were located in the territories currently controlled by this state after the 44-day war of 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Back on October 11, 2020, in my letter addressed to you, I had outlined the emerging critical situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and urged UNESCO not to stand aside. Soon you had announced your readiness to send a group of experts to Nagorno-Karabakh, while Azerbaijan is still hindering this process.

Meanwhile, during this period, significant damage has already been done to a great number of architectural and historical monuments, including the Cathedral of the Holy Christ the All-Savior in Shushi, the totally demolished church of Surb Astvatsamayr in Mekhakavan, the destroyed church of Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich “Kanach Zham” (Green Chapel) in Shushi. This is not a complete list and, unfortunately, it is being updated every day.

The situation is aggravated by the recent statement by the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan on plans to create a working group to change the identity of Armenian religious, historical and cultural monuments, the so-called “restoration of Albanian religious temples”, i.e. - Albanization of Armenian churches through the erasure of supposedly "false Armenian inscriptions", which is, in fact, an act of state vandalism.

Azerbaijani unprecedented cynical plans to destroy the cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh created over many centuries by the Armenian people in their autochthonous territory are nothing but a civilizational challenge to the whole humanity and international institutions aimed at protection of the world’s cultural heritage.

These plans are also a blatant violation of not only all kinds of UN conventions on the protection of the cultural heritage of humanity, but also a direct disregard for the requirements issued on December 7, 2021 by the International Court of Justice for Azerbaijan to take the necessary measures to prevent all the acts of vandalism committed against the Armenian cultural heritage and to punish those responsible.

Similar and other actions of Azerbaijan, which, even during the 2020 war, actively violated the UN Security Council resolution 2347 (2017), which condemns “the unlawful destruction and looting of cultural heritage during the armed conflicts” and prevents from the acts of vandalism and cultural genocide after the war, is still violating the norms of international conventions on prisoners of war and detainees, and has not yet fulfilled its unconditional obligation to fully release them. All these indicate the disrespect on the part of this state towards international institutions and their efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

By such actions, often fueled by a sense of its own impunity, Azerbaijan is laying a time bomb under the future peace in Nagorno-Karabakh, making the prospects for achieving it on a fair basis illusory, and the peace itself, if achieved, fragile and short-term.

As a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Dialogue among Civilizations, as well as deeply sharing the principles of the Organization laid down in its foundation 75 years ago, and also as an Armenian by origin, I highly appreciate your statements about the need to “protect the heritage of this region” and “prevent any additional damage” to historical objects, as well as implicitly welcome your intention to send a UNESCO working group to this region announced back in 2020. I kindly ask you to intensify efforts to send a UNESCO mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, which, we hope, will happen, and allow us to assess the damage already done, as well as the threats posed by the policy of official Baku.

We sincerely hope that such an authoritative organization as UNESCO will be able to find leverage on the authorities of Azerbaijan and force them to respect the culture of memory and cultural memory of nations, and that the world community will be able to protect and preserve the unique historical and architectural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the name of the world and for future generations.