On November 9, within the framework of the 42nd session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris, RA Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan met with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay.
Ararat Mirzoyan referred to the consequences of the ethnic cleansing of the population of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan, presenting the efforts of the RA government to respond to the primary needs of more than 100,000 refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. Minister Mirzoyan emphasized the realization of the right to education for about 21 thousand displaced school-aged children, noting that the opportunity to realize the right to education has already been ensured for most of them. In this context, the Minister of Foreign Affairs appreciated UNESCO’s quick response and the organization’s urgent mission to Armenia to assess the educational needs of forcibly displaced refugee children.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia and the Director-General of UNESCO addressed preserving the Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia expressed his concern regarding the serious risks of their destruction, desecration, or misappropriation, stressing the need for the active involvement of UNESCO in protecting cultural monuments. The importance of sending a fact-finding mission to UNESCO to Nagorno-Karabakh to carry out independent monitoring and mapping of cultural monuments on the spot was highlighted on both sides.
Other issues on the agenda of interaction between RA and UNESCO were also discussed at the meeting.
