Baku has long aimed to perpetrate cultural genocide in Artsakh and even today, it does not hide its desire. Baku aims to carry out cultural genocide in Artsakh and all places where Armenians have been present for millennia. This happened between 1997 and 2006 in Nakhchivan and completely exterminated all traces of Armenianness; this has already started to some extent towards Armenian cultural sites under Azerbaijani control, especially those close to road construction activities, mainly cemeteries. One of Baku’s wishes is the demoralization of the Armenians, so that the Armenians completely forget about Artsakh. Baku has announced that Armenian writings and traces of Armenian letters in Armenian churches that came under its control are false, and they have already created a working group to remove them.

A few months ago, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, visiting the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Hadrut, announced: – “Armenians have desecrated our mosques, they have also desecrated the old temples of Agvan. But we will restore them. All these writings are false. By the way, the Armenian academic mind has also never understood the terms Aghvan and Aghvank mentioned in the Armenian inscriptions, because the Armenian Christian community of Artsakh and Utik was the intellectual and administrative center of the Aghvan Church from its formation. The Catholicos of Aghvan were of Armenian origin, spoke and wrote in Armenian and had no need to leave inscriptions in other languages on the walls of their own monasteries and churches.

Let us recall that according to the 1954 Hague Convention “On the protection of cultural values in the event of armed conflicts”, the attack on the cultural values of any nation constitutes an attack on the cultural heritage of all humanity, because every nation has its contribution to global cultural diversity. Furthermore, according to Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention, states that the parties undertake to respect their cultural values, as well as those of the territory of the other party, by prohibiting the use of these values to purposes which could lead to the destruction of these values in the event of armed conflict, or to be harmed by refraining from any hostile action directed against them. The parties also undertake to prohibit, prevent and, where applicable, disrupt any act of theft, robbery or illegal appropriation of cultural property, as well as any act of vandalism against them.

According to the first Hague Protocol of 1954, it is prohibited to destroy cultural or spiritual values in occupied territories. The Second Hague Protocol of 1999 reaffirms this requirement and qualifies such an act as an international crime under Article 15. Acts of destruction of cultural values are also prohibited by the four international conventions and protocols on the protection of victims of war, the laws and customs of the Geneva War of August 12, 1949, as well as the relevant UN resolutions and human rights treaties.