Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Armenia Arayik Harutyunyan has addressed the UNESCO Director-General with a letter regarding the shelling of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi and has posted the following on his Facebook page:

“In response to the shelling of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, in addition to letters sent to various international organizations dealing with the protection of cultural heritage, I have also sent a letter to the UNESCO Director-General, calling the attention of this reputable institution to the cultural component of the genocidal acts of Azerbaijan.

I presented the facts about the shelling of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi (a major monumental complex of Armenian culture dating back to Hellenism and the Early Middle Age in Tigranakert and a pearl of Armenian architecture) as part of the large-scale aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan these days and touched upon the elimination of Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhchivan.

Simultaneously, with the example of reconstruction of a Muslim mosque in Shushi, I showed the opposite situation in free Republic of Artsakh in terms of protection of cultural values. Deliberate targeting of cultural heritage is a war crime and a manifestation of genocidal policy. I called on resolutely and strictly condemning the ongoing Azerbaijani aggression, the targeting of the civilian population, cultural genocide, the victims of which may be the nearly 4,000 monuments in the Republic of Artsakh.”