Azerbaijani President threatens UNESCO '"with revision of relations"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has threatened UNESCO with a "revision of relations" if the organization does not "maintain its international status" and does not cease "being a branch of any country", claiming UNESCO works for the "Armenian lobby", JAM News reports.

Aliyev made the remarks during a video conference with the country's new Minister of Culture Anar Kerimov who represented Azerbaijan in UNESCO before taking the Minister's post.

“Who can accuse us that the monuments of other religions in Azerbaijan are under threat? Inexperienced politicians, populists, some so-called ‘politicians’ who are not aware of our region, but fulfill the order of the Armenian lobby or work for it, may have some claims against us," he said.

Aliyev further claimed Azerbaijan has repaired religious monuments and taken care of them.

"We are ready to continue to cooperate with UNESCO. But on one condition, UNESCO must maintain its international status. UNESCO is not affiliated with any country. If this approach prevails in our relations, then there will be cooperation. If not, this cooperation can be revised,” Aliyev added.

During the recent military hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh, the Azerbaijani forces launched two targeted attacks on the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. After taking control of the city, they destroyed the domes of Saint John the Baptist Church.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.