In recent months, the European Parliament has been working on the Implementation of the New European Agenda for Culture and the EU Strategy for International Cultural Relations report for the years 2023-2026, where, among other urgent issues, the protection of Nagorno-Karabakh’s (Artsakh) cultural values has been highlighted for the strategy of effective implementation of the global cultural policy. Armenian News-NEWS.am learns about this from the website monumentwatch.org, which monitors Artsakh's cultural heritage.
As a result of the discussions of Armenia’s representation in the EU with the colleagues of the European Parliament, a decision was made to submit an amendment which would refer to the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in March 2022 on the destruction of cultural values in Nagorno-Karabakh, in which there are clear and critical messages directed at Azerbaijan—taking into account the decisions on the destruction of cultural sites carried out by the ISIS/Da'esh terrorist group on April 28, 2015 and on the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh on March 10, 2022.
The deadline for submission of amendments (September 16) coincided with Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenia on September 13, and Nathalie Loiseau (French Member of the European Parliament) also submitted a separate amendment with the following editorial: "Condemns Azerbaijan's continued policy of erasing and denying Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and its surroundings, violating international law and the court decision of December 7, 2021. Condemns Azerbaijan's renewed aggression against Armenia, which further endangers the Armenian cultural heritage, calls on the EU to actively pressure Azerbaijan to end hostilities and participate in efforts to protect endangered cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, in particular by deploying mechanisms to facilitate UNESCO's fact-finding mission.”
Another amendment was submitted by a Greek and eight Cypriot MEPs of the EPP faction, "calling on the Turkish authorities to fully respect the historical and cultural nature of cultural and religious monuments and symbols, especially those included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, calls on Turkey to fully respect its international obligation to protect monuments of Christian, Armenian, Pontic and Jewish origin."
On the eve of the vote, on October 12, the new report of Caucasus Heritage Watch was sent to the factions of the European Parliament. The case of destruction of the St. Sargis Armenian church in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Hadrut has been presented in this new report.
At the October 13 session, the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) of the European Parliament adopted by the majority of votes the amendment regarding the reference to the previous resolutions, as well as the 106th and 137th amendments.
The adoption of the above-mentioned amendment 106 was important at this time not only due to its clear condemnation of Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenia on September 13, but also the reaffirmation of the AFET position condemning Azerbaijan's policy of destruction of Armenian cultural values in parallel with the development of reports on Armenia and Azerbaijan. After the adoption of the resolution on the destruction of cultural values in Nagorno-Karabakh in March 2022, Azerbaijan has been actively campaigning against the "one-sidedness" of the said resolution, monumentwatch.org added.
