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Statement
of the Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan On Destruction and Seizure
of the Cultural Property of Azerbaijan
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Statement of the Milli Mejlis of
the Republic of Azerbaijan On Destruction and Seizure of the Cultural
Property of Azerbaijan
The
tragic results of the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan are not confined
only to the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh and 7 surrounding districts,
and the turning of about 1 million persons into refugees and displaced
persons. Also, the policy of terror and genocide against the Azerbaijani
people, which has been made a State policy in Armenia, has inflicted serious
damages to the culture of Azerbaijan.
In
harsh violation of the provisions of the Hague Convention for the Protection
of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the Paris Convention
on the Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property the Republic of Armenia
has been overtly plundering the cultural property of Azerbaijan.
On the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan, over 100,000
cultural objects of local and world significance have been destroyed and
seized, most of 500 historical and over 100 archaeological monuments and
22 museums have been completely or partially demolished.
Along with the above-said, the Armenian nationalists have continuously
misappropriated the folklore, music, literature and other spiritual values
of the Azerbaijani people, and thus the war of aggression and occupation
has been expanded to cover cultural genocide as well.
The Azerbaijani epos "Ashig Garib", "Koroghlu", "Shah Ismayil" have been
seized by the Armenians, a large number of famous Azerbaijani dance melodies,
such as "Tarakama", "Vaghzali", "Yalli" "Uzundara" and others have been
declared as pieces of the Armenian music by changing their titles, or
even keeping their titles as they are in Azerbaijani.
Certain sound recording companies operating in Armenia, Russia, USA and
other countries and owned by persons of Armenian origin ("ANI-records",
"Kazarian-records", "Karen-records", "Parseqian-records" and others) are
copying the Azerbaijani folk music as well as works of the Azerbaijani
composers as the Armenian music.
The growing aggression against the Azerbaijani folklore and professional
music in recent years, and the armenianising of the Azerbaijani toponymies,
and the destruction of the Azerbaijani cemeteries situated in the occupied
territories as well as in Armenia, and introducing the Azerbaijani carpets
and exhibits pillaged from the museums in the occupied territories as
the national heritage of Armenians cannot but cause serious concern.
The policy of misappropriation of the Azerbaijani music the Armenian nationalists
initiated yet at the beginning of the twentieth century against the well-known
operetta "Arshin mal alan" and other works of Uzeyir Hajibeyli, the founder
of the Azerbaijani modern professional music, is nowadays being pursued
vis-a-vis the works of other prominent Azerbaijani composers by way of
plagiarism.
The Armenian nationalists, disregarding all relevant legal and ethical
standards have sought to deepen the moral terror against the Azerbaijani
culture and even succeeded to introduce Gara Garaiev, the great Azerbaijani
musician, as an Armenian composer in a number of international publications.
The problem of the destruction and seizure of Azerbaijani cultural property
as an integral part of the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijani has
also been raised at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
An official document titled "Seizure and destruction of Azerbaijani cultural
heritage" (27 June 2001, No. 9147) has been accepted by the Assembly for
consideration and is being examined now within its appropriate committee.
The Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan states that the destruction
and seizure of the Azerbaijani cultural property by the Republic of Armenia
and Armenian nationalists runs counter with the universally recognised
norms and principles of international law.
The Milli Mejlis of the Republic of Azerbaijan calls on the international
community for solidarity and help with a view to preventing the aggression
of the Republic of Armenia and Armenian nationalists against the cultural
property of Azerbaijan.
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