Armenia's lies were exposed during the 9th session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage at UNESCO

On July 5-7, 2022, the 9^th session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage was held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

Azerbaijan was represented at the session by a representative of the Ministry of Culture, as well as diplomats of our Permanent Delegation to UNESCO.

Representatives of 180 participating states gathered for three days and discussed important issues related to the protection of living heritage around the world and the future of the Convention. The session also discussed the issues of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund resource utilization plan and the accreditation of non-governmental organizations.

During the session, as usual, the Armenian delegation's attempt to use the UNESCO platform for its provocative and baseless claims and mislead the international community was prevented and its lies were exposed.

In response to absurd ideas, the representative of Azerbaijan said that Armenia itself occupied 20% of the territory of Azerbaijan for 30 years, purposefully destroyed all cultural and religious monuments located in that area, violated all norms and principles of international law, including the main conventions of UNESCO.

During the occupation of our lands by Armenia, thousands of examples of cultural and religious heritage of Azerbaijan were completely destroyed, about 1 million refugees and IDPs were deprived of their intangible cultural heritage rights.

It was emphasized that, unlike Armenia, Azerbaijan does not discriminate on the basis of religion and ethnicity to its historical and cultural heritage and recognizes the full equal rights of all people living in its territory.

At the same time, it was pointed out that the cultural heritage of the Azerbaijani people, located on the territory of Armenia, was destroyed and behind these acts of vandalism is the erasure of traces of the Azerbaijani people living on these lands for centuries.

It was reported that the conflict ended with Azerbaijan liberating its territories from occupation, and our country focused on the restoration of territories freed from occupation. Instead of deceiving the international community, Armenia was advised to give up hatred, enmity and territorial claims, show respect for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of countries, and accept the new realities that have arisen in the region.

In the end, it was brought to the attention of the Assembly participants that the visit of the UNESCO technical mission did not take place precisely because of the non-constructive position of Armenia, and in the 2005 UNESCO report, it was noted that Armenia hindered the implementation of the UNESCO mission.

Within the session, 12 new members of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage were also elected: Germany, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Paraguay, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Viet nam, Angola, Burkina-Faso, Ethiopia and Mauritania.