Azerbaijani culture minister: Azerbaijan's 40, 000 museum exhibits were destroyed during Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have organized a conference on “Protection of cultural values during the armed conflicts” at the Museum Center in Baku on Jan. 27.

Minister of Culture and Tourism Abulfas Garayev addressed the conference.

He noted that experts from six countries are attending the conference. The minister said 25 schools of music, four art galleries, about 40,000 museum exhibits of Azerbaijan were destroyed during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The minister said a round table was creating opportunity for the participants to share their ideas and experiences gained during the implementation of 1954 Hague Convention on Protection of Cultural Values during Armed Conflicts and two Additional Protocols.

Azerbaijan joined Hague Convention and Protocol I in 1993 and Protocol II in 2000.

“We have always to review state of Azerbaijani cultural heritage in the occupied territories and outside of the country”, the minister said.

Head of ICRC operations for Eastern Europe and Central Asia Pascale Meige Wagner said regulations of protection of cultural heritage during the armed conflicts were part of international law and the conference would create opportunity to search ways for evaluation of observing these regulations.

/APA/