TODAY.AZ / Politics

Committee Chairman: 22 museums of Azerbaijan are under Armenian occupation

06 April 2017 [15:28] - TODAY.AZ

By Azernews


By Rashid Shirinov

Twenty-two of of the 200 museums, existing in Azerbaijan are now under Armenian occupation, Chairman of the Parliamentary Culture Committee Rafael Huseynov said at the committee’s meeting on April 5.

He added that many carpets from those museums were sold under the guise of Armenian carpets, noting that Armenians have always encroached upon the cultural heritage of Azerbaijan.

Huseynov said that at the recent meeting of a PACE committee he brought to the attention that the Azikh cave is the oldest human settlement in Europe, and this is a proven fact – however, this cave is located on the territory now occupied by Armenia and it is currently destroyed.

“There are 200 museums in Azerbaijan, 22 of which are under occupation," the chairman said at the PACE committee meeting. "Their exhibits were looted, destroyed and sold, and these facts should be reflected in the report.”

Huseynov noted that MPs from Turkey, Ukraine and the U.K. supported him there, and he stressed that these facts will be included in the report.

As a result of the occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions of Azerbaijan, as well as seven villages of the Gazakh region bordering with Armenia and Kerky village of Nakhchivan, 738 historical monuments, 28 museums with 83,500 exhibits, four art galleries, 14 memorial complexes and 1,107 cultural institutions were looted.

In its report about the destruction of historical and cultural heritage in Azerbaijan's territories occupied by Armenia, which was submitted to UNESCO, UN and other international organizations in 2015, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry mentioned a number of facts of Armenian vandalism in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.

For instance, the bronze statues of the poetess Natavan, the composer Uzeyir Hajibayov, the singer and musician Bulbul would have been sold as bronze scrap metal in Georgia if the Azerbaijani government had not bought them for $500,000 and taken them to Baku. Similarly, a silver handbag from the Lachin Museum of History was sold at a Sotheby’s auction in London for $80,000.

Estimations by Azerbaijan's working group on the assessment of damage in the occupied territories showed that the total damage inflicted to Azerbaijan by the Armenian occupation accounted to $819.15 billion.

The destruction and damage of historical and cultural monuments by the Armenian invaders in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan contradict many international conventions on the preservation of cultural and natural heritages, including the Hague, European and UNESCO conventions.

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/160023.html

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