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Azernews, 21 September 2017

By Rashid Shirinov

The issues concerning the monuments destroyed by Armenia in the occupied Azerbaijani territories and problems of refugees and internally displaced persons will be raised at the Committee meeting on culture, science, education and media of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

The Azerbaijani MP and member of Azerbaijan’s Permanent Delegation to PACE Rafael Huseynov told Trend on September 21that the Azerbaijani delegation constantly raises these issues and opinions on this topic will be expressed at the PACE meetings.

Rafael Huseynov will be in Paris from September 21 to 24 to participate in the Committee meeting on culture, science, education and media.

Huseynov further added that a report on the activities of democratic institutions in Azerbaijan will be presented at the PACE autumn session in October. In addition, a report on the work done in the period of Azerbaijan's chairmanship at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe will be discussed there.

During the question-and-answer session the Azerbaijani delegation will direct questions concerning Armenia's aggression against Azerbaijan to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjorn Jagland.

Since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Armenian aggressors destroyed 1,200 historical and architectural monuments, looted 27 museums, over 100,000 items were exported to Armenia. In addition, the Armenian occupiers destroyed 152 religious monuments and 62 mosques, 4.6 million books in 927 libraries, including the Holy Quran and rare Islamic manuscripts.

The aggressor country also destroyed 4.6 million copies of books and valuable manuscripts in 927 libraries in the occupied Azerbaijani territories as part of the purposeful policy to annihilate the history and culture of neighboring Azerbaijan.

Estimations by Azerbaijan's working group on the assessment of damage in the occupied territories showed that the total damage inflicted to Azerbaijan by the Armenian occupation accounted to $819.15 billion.

The destruction and damage of historical and cultural monuments by the Armenian invaders in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan contradict many international conventions on the preservation of cultural and natural heritages, including the Hague, European and UNESCO conventions.