Scientific center slams Azerbaijan’s reprehensible attempts to rewrite history and appropriate Armenian heritage
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The Geghard Scientific Analytical Foundation has condemned an Azeri propaganda event organized in Poland that was part of Baku’s ongoing attempts to appropriate Armenian cultural heritage.
The Geghard Foundation urged all countries and organizations that host and organize such events not to contribute to the dissemination of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian false narratives.
The propaganda event was a photo exhibition which has been condemned by the Armenian Church.
Below is the full statement by Geghard Foundation
“In Poland’s capital Warsaw, the Embassy of Azerbaijan organized another photo exhibition, again accusing the Republic of Armenia of “destroying Azerbaijani cultural heritage.” Titled “Western Azerbaijan in Our Cultural Memory,” the exhibition is a detail of the Azerbaijani regime’s propaganda campaign, which seeks to present itself to the world under the guise of “cultural heritage as a universal value,” while in reality masking yet another manifestation of Azerbaijan’s territorial claims against Armenia and attempts to appropriate the centuries-old spiritual and cultural heritage of the Armenian people.
The opening of the exhibition at Twardowski Square was attended not only by Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Poland, Nargiz Gurbanova, members of parliament, and activists from the Azerbaijani diaspora, but also by heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Poland, as well as scholars, artists, and representatives of religious communities.
It is regrettable that, despite repeated condemnations of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy by various international organizations, there are still people who participate in such events. Azerbaijan’s attempts to rewrite history under the guise of serving “peace, reconciliation, and justice” are reprehensible and must be condemned.
By presenting “copies of historical documents, scenes of displacement, and photos of destroyed monuments,” Azerbaijan continues to accuse Armenians of so-called “ethnic cleansing of Azerbaijanis and destruction of their cultural heritage.” Meanwhile, it is Azerbaijan itself that has destroyed—and continues to systematically erase—the Armenian cultural presence and heritage in Nakhijevan and in Artsakh, which it has occupied and subjected to ethnic cleansing.
The Geghard Foundation urges all countries and organizations that host and organize such events not to contribute to the dissemination of Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian false narratives and ongoing attempts to appropriate Armenian cultural heritage. It is hardly credible that a people still in search of their national identity could possess a “cultural memory”—a concept inherent only to ancient nations with a rich historical legacy.”
