The Armenian Bar Association is appalled at the election of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Intergovernmental Committee for Promoting the Return of Cultural Property (ICPRCP). It is an alarming mismatch in light of 1) Azerbaijan’s systematic and widespread destruction of Armenian cultural and religious property in and around Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and 2) Azerbaijan’s
arrogant refusal to restore cultural property unlawfully appropriated from Armenians residing there.
Azerbaijan’s absurd promotion openly violates the spirit and obligations set forth in UNESCO’s own conventions and declarations, particularly the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Protocols.
Numerous academic institutions, human rights organizations, and independent media outlets have documented Azerbaijan’s systematic erasure, desecration, and falsification of Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh— including its demolition of thousands of Christian Armenian medieval-era khachkars (carved stone crosses) and monuments in Nakhichevan and its brazen destruction and appropriation of cultural sites across Artsakh.1 A nonpartisan investigation by Cornell University’s Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) found that Azerbaijan’s wreckage of Armenian heritage sites has been part of a deliberate, state-sponsored policy intended to wipe away all traces of the ethnic Armenian presence in these regions. Cornell’s researchers documented the sweeping and wholesale destruction of this uniquely Armenian cultural patrimony. A follow-up investigation by the ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data), an independent, impartial global conflict monitor, found that since 2021, Azerbaijan destroyed nearly 80 ethnic Armenian historical, religious, political, and residential sites in and around the enclave.
In 2021, the International Court of Justice-the primary judicial body of the United Nations itself ordered Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration of Armenian cultural heritage in the overwhelmingly Armenian enclave, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artefacts. To date, Azerbaijan has contemptuously ignored the court’s order.
Furthermore, the Declaration of December 11, 2020 by the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, responsible under the Hague Convention for protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict, explicitly recognized the documented damage to cultural property in and around Artsakh by Azeri forces, reaffirmed that such heritage “is a testimony of history inseparable from peoples’ identity,” and called for “all immediate and necessary measures to prevent looting and protect cultural property.” The Committee also
welcomed UNESCO’s initiative to send an independent technical mission to assess the condition of cultural heritage in and around Artsakh — a mission that Azerbaijan has refused to permit.
Azerbaijan’s participation in UNESCO’s cultural heritage committee will bring ridicule and ruin to UNESCO’s credibility and the universal principles it is meant to uphold. Azerbaijan’s mere presence disregards the very premise affirmed by the 1954 Hague Convention — that “damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind.”
The Armenian Bar Association calls upon UNESCO and its Member States to reconsider this impudent decision and to recommit to transparency, accountability, and the protection of cultural heritage without political bias. Upholding international law, ethical stewardship, and the preservation of the world’s diverse cultural legacy must remain UNESCO’s guiding compass.
Azerbaijan’s ICPRCP participation is a staggeringly low point in the great promise and protective reach of UNESCO and will assuredly and unfortunately offset UNESCO’s moral authority and erode worldwide trust in its mission. 1 Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches, The Art Newspaper (June 1, 2021); Christina Maranci, “The Medieval Armenian Monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh Must be Protected,” Apollo Magazine (December 9, 2020); Dale BerningSawa, “Monumental loss: Azerbaijan and ‘The Worst Cultural Genocide of the 21st Century,’” The Guardian (March 1, 2019); Nora McGreevy, “Why Scholars, Cultural Institutions Are Calling to Protect Armenian Heritage,” Smithsonian Magazine (November 24, 2020). Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman, “A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture,” Hyperallergic (February 18, 2019); “Destruction of the Armenian Cemetery of Djulfa,” ICOMOS Heritage at Risk; “Azerbaijan: Famous Medieval Cemetery Vanishes: IWPR reporter confirms that there is nothing left of the celebrated stone crosses of Jugha,” Institute for War & Peace Reporting; “When the World Looked Away: The Destruction of Julfa Cemetery,” Radio Free Europe (December 10, 2020); Kate Fitz Gibbon, “World Heritage Committee Meeting in Baku Will be Hosted by Cultural Destroyers,” Cultural Property News (March 19, 2019); “Azeri Soldiers Vandalized a Cemetery in Nagorno-Karabakh, Rekindling Fears of Destruction of Armenian Heritage,” Archyde (November 27, 2020); “Silent Erasure: A Satellite Investigation of the Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage in Nakhichivan, Azerbaijan,” Caucasus Heritage Watch (September, 2022).
