The European Parliament on Thursday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that strongly condemns Baku’s systematic destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh. During the discussion of the measure, members of the European Parliament accused Azerbaijan of committing cultural genocide in Artsakh.
The resolution, which passed by a vote of 635 in favor, 2 opposed and 42 abstentions, also emphasizes that Baku’s steps constitute a violation international law, as well as a recent decision by the International Court of Justice.
The European Parliament measure says that over the past 30 years, Azerbaijan has committed irreversible destruction of religious and cultural heritage, especially in the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic, where 89 Armenian churches, 20,000 graves and more than 5,000 tombstones have been destroyed.
The resolution emphasizes that the elimination of traces of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno Karabakh is carried out not only for damaging or destroying it, but also for falsifying history by presenting it as the so-called Caucasian-Albanian, stating that on February 3, 2022 Minister Anar Karimov announced the establishment of a working group responsible for eliminating “traces invented by Armenians on Albanian religious temples.”
The resolution admits that the elimination of the Armenian cultural heritage is part of a wider systemic, state-level policy of anti-Armenianism, hatred of Armenians, encouraged by the Azerbaijani authorities, including glorification of violence, anti-humanism, and territorial claims to the Republic of Armenia, threatening peace and security in the South Caucasus.
The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to renounce its maximalist goals, belligerent approaches, territorial claims to Armenia and to engage in good faith in the negotiations on the final status of Nagorno Karabakh under the auspices of the OSCE Minsk Group.
The resolution calls on Azerbaijan to fully comply with the interim order of the International Court of Justice, namely to “refrain from suppressing the Armenian language, destroying the Armenian cultural heritage or eliminating the historical Armenian cultural presence by other means, or restricting the entry of Armenians to those sites”, stressing that any new case of destruction or alteration of cultural heritage must be immediately addressed by the international community.
It calls on the European Commission to use all available levers to prevent the destruction and alteration of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, as well as the prevention of vandalism.
The European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy hailed the European Parliament’s efforts, saying in a statement that the passage of the bill was a culmination targeted outreach to members of the European Parliament and the Armenia’s Embassy in Brussels.
EAFJD President Kaspar Karampetian said that the recent visit to Brussels by Artsakh Foreign Minister David Babayan, the resumption of activities by the Artsakh Friendship Group in the European Parliament, as well as meeting with Armenia’s Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan all contributed to the successful passage of the measure.
“It is a fact that the European Parliament strongly condemns the anti-Armenian policy pursued at the state level in Azerbaijan,” said Karampetian. “This is a powerful lever to be used to apply pressure on Azerbaijan and to speak out about the barbaric policy of that country.”
Member of the European Parliament, Željana Zovko, representing the EPP faction, called on UNESCO to urgently launch a fact-finding mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding areas to investigation the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage and to observe the situation on the ground.
Costas Mavrides, a European Parliament member from Cyprus’ Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, in turn, stressed that civilization and culture should be an opportunity to bring peoples closer to each other, to create friendship, not to become an instrument of hatred and enmity.
“We are dealing with a country’s cultural heritage; when it is destroyed, it is a violation of international law. The European Union must pay attention to this destruction, because it is happening on a systematic basis. This is a cultural genocide, its recognition is a vital necessity. We saw it in Palmyra, Syria, we saw it in Turkish-occupied Cyprus, we see it in Karabakh, carried out by Azerbaijan. Therefore, it is important for us to recognize this cultural genocide committed by Azerbaijan against Armenian culture in Nagorno-Karabakh,” Mavrides said.
The co-author of the resolution, Sweden’s Evin Incir called on the government of Azerbaijan to fulfill its international commitments and obligations.
Incir, who was born in Diyarbakir and is of Kurdish origin, currently represents the Social-Democratic Party of Sweden. She characterized the systematic destruction of Armenia cultural heritage by Azerbaijan as an attack on Armenia and most importantly an attack on the future generations of Armenia. “In its attempts to rewrite history for reaching dominance Azerbaijan has restored to destruction of cultural treasures, which the future generations can no longer enjoy. This is a something, which I with my Kurdish roots, saw against my people and our identity in Turkey,” said Incir, adding that on December 7, 2021 the UN International Court of Justice issued a decision on provisional measures based on the lawsuit filed by the Republic of Armenia against Azerbaijan, forcing an end to the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage.
“Enough is enough,” said Incir.
In his remarks, Dutch member of the European Parliament, Peter van Dalen, warned that Azerbaijan is making the life of inhabitants of Nagorno Karabakh impossible, adding that the life of the people of Nagorno Karabakh is under threat.
Van Dalen said that the president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev only takes care of himself and his family, as their wealth is reaches billions.
“Their wealth is calculated to be of several billions, and you can see that as with many despots, corruption, detention of political opponents, violations of human rights are rampant,” said van Dalen, who cited this week’s shelling of civilian targets and impeding the flow of gas to Artsakh by Azerbaijani forces as examples.
