YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 9, ARMENPRESS. Within the framework of the 42nd session of UNESCO General Conference in Paris, Armenian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan on November 9 held a meeting with the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay, the Foreign Ministry of Armenia said in a statement.

''At the meeting Ararat Mirzoyan touched upon the consequences of the ethnic cleansing of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, presenting the efforts of the Armenian Government to meet the priority needs of more than 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh.

Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the importance of realizing the right to education for about 21 thousand refugee children of school age, noting that most of them had already been provided with the opportunity to realize the right to education.

In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs appreciated UNESCO's   rapid deployment of the UNESCO emergency mission to Armenia for the assessment of educational needs of refugee children.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay touched upon the issue of preserving the Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Mirzoyan expressed concern about the serious risks of their destruction, desecration or appropriation, stressing the need for the active involvement of UNESCO in the protection of cultural monuments. 

The importance of sending a fact-finding mission of UNESCO to Nagorno-Karabakh to conduct independent monitoring and mapping of cultural monuments on-site was emphasized by both sides,'' reads the statement.