“All the historical monuments have been restored, theaters repaired in Azerbaijan. We will continue this policy.
But we can not fully protect our historical heritage due to the occupation of Azerbaijani lands by Armenia,” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said at the solemn opening ceremony of Culture Year “Baku – the Capital of Islamic Culture – 2009”, APA reports. The head of state said 20 percent of Azerbaijani territories were still under occupation and underlined that over one million people had been internally displaced. The president said all the historical monuments, museums, mosques in the occupied territories had been destroyed by Armenians.
“International observers also underline it. In 2005, OSCE fact-finding mission wrote in the report prepared basing on the outcomes of the visit to Nagorno Karabakh and other occupied lands that Armenia had destroyed everything. This is the result of Armenian vandalism, this is Armenia’s aggressive policy. We will surely restore all our historical monuments after our territories are liberated. We will rebuild all towns and buildings. But in order to do this, Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh conflict should end, Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity should be restored and our citizens should return to their native lands,” he said.
ISESCO Secretary-General Abdulaziz bin Osman Al Twaijri also touched on Nagorno Karabakh conflict and wished liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories.