YEREVAN, JULY 3, ARMENPRESS. Azerbaijan refused to provide additional written security measures to ensure the unrestricted entry of the Armenian delegation to Baku aimed at taking part in the session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Thus, Azerbaijan hindered the Armenian delegation’s participation to the session, Armenia has filed an official complaint in this regard, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Anna Naghdalyan told reporters during today’s briefing in Yerevan.

“The 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee is being held in Baku from June 30 to July 10, and Armenia’s delegation has been invited to take part in the session as an observer. The Armenian side has applied to UNESCO on this matter to receive additional respective security measures from the hosting country for the participation of the Armenian delegation, given the impossibility of the entry of the Armenian citizens and ethnic Armenians in general to that country and the anti-Armenian propaganda being carried out in this country with a daily regime, as well as the discriminatory attitude towards ethnic Armenians. We have been in touch with the secretariat regarding this matter, and the secretariat has always made efforts to receive from the hosting authorities the necessary guarantees for the Armenian side. Despite the efforts, two days before the event, on June 28, the Armenian delegation received the letter of the UNESCO assistant secretary general according to which Azerbaijan, in fact, has refused to provide additional written security measures to ensure the unrestricted entry of the Armenian delegation to the country and its participation to that event”, Naghdalyan said.

The Armenian MFA spokeswoman said this contains a vicious precedent when a country, that is a member of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, can block the exercise of another member state’s right to participate in the session. Armenia has submitted an official appeal to the UNESCO leadership and member states, calling on to pay attention to this vicious behavior, as well as come up with a strongly condemning position.

Edited and translated by Aneta Harutyunyan