On March 16, Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, who is on a working visit in Paris, held a meeting with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.

Minister Mirzoyan stressed that Armenia emphasizes the expansion of cooperation with UNESCO in the fields of education, science and communication. He also noted that Armenia, as a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO, remains committed to the promotion of global peace, development and effective multilateralism, which are the pillars of the Organization.

During the meeting, reference was made to the deliberate destruction of the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage as well as the distortion of their identity in the territories fallen under the control of Azerbaijan as a result of the Azerbaijani aggression against Nagorno-Karabakh. In this context, Minister Mirzoyan drew the attention of the Director-General of UNESCO to the fact of the establishment of a state working group for this purpose in Azerbaijan. It was also emphasized that these actions blatantly neglect the decision of the UN International Court of Justice of December 7 2021 to apply urgent measures regarding the protection of the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage.

The Foreign Minister of Armenia stressed the urgency of immediate intervention of UNESCO in the current situation and its unimpeded involvement in the conflict zone in order to preserve and prevent the vandalism of the historical and cultural monuments of Artsakh, which are part of the universal cultural heritage. The prompt implementation of UNESCO fact-finding mission in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone proposed by the UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay in line with the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two protocols was emphasized.