Your trusted source

“It is regrettable that some states abuse the education for contrary objectives, exploiting it for dissemination of nationalist hatred especially among the youth,” Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said in his remarks delivered at the General Policy Debate of the 39th Session of the UNESCO General Conference.

According to a press release by the ministry, he underscored there are numerous such examples in the textbooks of Azerbaijan, one of them teaching the children that Armenians are their genetic enemies.

“The 2016 report of the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance states: “Political leaders, educational institutions and media have continued using hate speech against Armenians; an entire generation of Azerbaijanis has now grown up listening to this hateful rhetoric”. It is rightly described in the Constitution of UNESCO that “wars begin in the minds of men”. The societies will not be prepared for reconciliation unless the defense of peace is constructed in their minds,” Nalbandian said.

The Armenian official cited great German writer Heinrich Heine: “Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people”. “The books of the renowned Azerbaijani novelist were burnt on the streets of Baku just for speaking the truth about Armenian massacres and calling for reconciliation. He wrote а story about his home village in Nakhijevan that during his childhood used to have twelve churches. All of them, together with numerous other Armenian sacred sites and cemeteries in Nakhijevan and all over Azerbaijan were wiped out in 1990s and 2000s. In the same manner thousands delicately carved medieval cross-stones of the Armenian cemetery in Jugha were bulldozed under the watchful eyes of the Azerbaijani authorities. The site was transformed to a shooting range.”

Mr. Nalbandian reminded that after ethnically cleansing the Armenian population of Azerbaijan, now Baku aims at wiping out even the memory of several millennia old Armenian presence, every traces of the indigenous Armenian culture and history of the region.

“Baku erases the past merely because it does not fit the present day self-portrayed image of Azerbaijan, probably following George Orwell’s famous words on “who controls the present, controls the past”. Those who control Azerbaijan today think they can rewrite the history to legitimize their present xenophobic policies,” he highlighted.

Speaking about the importance of the preservation of historical and cultural heritage, he said: “Historically being situated on the crossroads of different civilizations Armenia has cultivated deeply rooted traditions of coexistence and respect towards other cultures and religions. That is why Armenia preserves a rich cultural heritage that includes among others the Hellenistic era temple, some of the oldest churches in the world, medieval Jewish cemetery, 18th century mosque and soon will host the world’s largest Yazidi temple.”

To note, UNESCO's General Conference conference has brought together all of the organization's 195 Member States, which are set to determine the organization’s budget and the direction of its programmes and activities for the next two years and appoint new Director-General at General Conference.

The full speech of FM Nalbandian is available at the ministry’s official website.