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Facts of destruction, vandalism and appropriation committed by Armenia against Azerbaijan's cultural heritage is documented

10 November 2021 14:49 (UTC +04:00)

"The occupant side should also be held accountable for the violation of international treaties to which it has joined," said Head of the State Service for the Protection, Development, and Restoration of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Azerbaijan Azad Jafarli in his interview with APA.

According to him, at present, information is being collected and documented on all the facts of destruction, vandalism, and appropriation committed by Armenia against our cultural heritage: “These documents are sent to all international organizations dealing with cultural heritage. Presentations are also held on the relevant international platforms, this is discussed at the meetings."

A. Jafarli noted that during the Patriotic War Armenia repeatedly fired at objects of no military significance, civilian objects, settlements where civilians live: “As a result of these attacks, along with civilian objects, several historical and architectural monuments were damaged. Among the damaged civilian objects there are monuments of history and culture”.

According to him, the damage was caused to such monuments as Sheikh Baba's mausoleum in Fizuli, the Imamzade complex in Ganja, the Man's Gymnasium of local importance to the architectural monuments, the Seferkhanli mosque, and the Dwelling house (now the Ganja College of Music ), a structure installed to protect the remains of a mosque discovered as a result of archaeological excavations in Agsu and the mausoleum of Sheikh Ahmed, located in the village of Khalili, Agsu region.

A. Jafarli stressed that in some cases it is impossible to restore destroyed monuments: “There are quite a lot of such monuments in the liberated territories. The monitoring carried out also shows that most of our historical monuments were destroyed, they were changed and appropriated. As we noted, the monitoring work has not yet been completed. After the completion of the analysis, it will be possible to name specific numbers."