Raffi Kortoshyan (Deputy Director of the Foundation for the Study of Armenian Architecture) - Saint Sargis is a parish church of the 19th century, I took the photos in 2011, all of this was standing until March 2022, the last satellite photo was taken in March, and the other photo was taken in July, it appears that it does not exist.
We are talking about these satellite photos of Hadrut church. The Caucasian Heritage Watch structure of the Cornell University of the USA noted next to the photos that Azerbaijan is destroying the monuments of Nagorno-Karabakh following the example of Nakhijevan.
Raffi Kortoshyan - After the decision of the Hague court in December 2021, it was standing.
Caucasus Heritage Watch also mentions this, reminding that already in December 2021, the International Court of Justice, on the basis of Armenia's application to apply urgent measures, obliged Azerbaijan to “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration directed at Armenian cultural heritage, including against churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts."
Raffi Kortoshyan - This is an outrageous fact that Azerbaijan has violated the 2021 decision of the Hague Court of December.
Armenia hopes that the Director General of UNESCO will continue to make efforts in the direction of sending a mission to Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring areas. During the plenary session of the UNESCO Executive Board, Christian Ter-Stepanyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to UNESCO, reminded about this once again, emphasized the fact of continuous obstruction of the mission by Azerbaijan, warned that UNESCO experts may witness the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage.
After the 44-day war, Azerbaijan obstructs the visit of the UNESCO mission to Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) in every possible way. This fact was also recorded by the structure. Along with destroying the Armenian heritage, Azerbaijan assumes the image of a victim.
In his report to the UNESCO conference held in Mexico City on September 28-30, the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan Anar Kerimov accused the international community of allegedly “not giving an appropriate response to the ethno-cultural genocide carried out by Armenians for 30 years.” He also invited UNESCO to the territories under the control of Azerbaijan in order to carry out a technical mission there.
Raffi Kortoshyan - What can we demand from a minister of culture who announces today that they are open, UNESCO can come when he presents a picture of Akhaltskha fortress in Georgia and presents it as Aghdami?
In the same way, UNESCO can announce: we are ready, let the group come, but before the group is formed, they can say that a new mine exploded in that area, it is not in their interest for the fact-finding group to go to those areas.
Kortoshyan believes that they are delaying the entry of the fact-finding group with disinformation until they manage to destroy all the Armenian monuments, as happened in the case of Nakhijevan. According to the monument expert, condemning statements and interim decisions make it possible to prolong Azerbaijan's culturally destructive activities, but not in all cases the reaction of international structures is appropriate, the reason is again the volume of Azerbaijani forgery.
Raffi Kortoshyan - Look, if the Armenian side says that the church was destroyed, they give a map, an old photo, a description, Azerbaijan says that there are 65 mosques and no historical information.
According to Raffi Kortoshyan, despite the publications of destruction or desecration of monuments, videos have been shared less in recent months, this does not mean that they are not being destroyed. As long as the attention of the international community is high, they are more cautious.
