Armenia continues embezzling tangible, intangible values

Armenia is trying to justify its groundless territorial claims in every possible way, including misappropriation of tangible and intangible values of Azerbaijan and other nations, said Kamran Imanov.

The Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Copyright Agency, talking to reporters on April 20, reminded that the aggressor Armenia, ignoring the decisions taken by relevant international structures, does not want to liberate the occupied territories and tries to maintain the status quo.

“Decisions taken by international structures in support of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan have no effect on Armenia,” said Imanov.

“As a result, our tangible and intangible heritage is being misappropriated. The Armenian thieving always has existed and will exist. It is due to the fact that the occupier-country wants to justify its claims to the occupied territories, and is engaged in misappropriation of tangible and intangible heritage of both Azerbaijan and other nations," Imanov noted.

Since the beginning of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and occupation of Azerbaijani territories, Armenian aggressors destroyed 1,200 historical and architectural monuments, looted 27 museums, over 100,000 items were exported to Armenia. In addition, the Armenian occupiers destroyed 152 religious monuments and 62 mosques, 4.6 million books in 927 libraries, including the Holy Quran and rare Islamic manuscripts.

The aggressor country also destroyed 4.6 million copies of books and valuable manuscripts in 927 libraries in the occupied Azerbaijani territories as part of the purposeful policy to annihilate neighboring the history and culture of Azerbaijan.

Imanov further informed that Baku will host another seminar on April 26 devoted to the Armenian plagiarism and falsification, and new data from new sources will be released there.

Armenia broke out a lengthy war against Azerbaijan by laying territorial claims on its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including NagornoKarabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the NagornoKarabakh and surrounding districts.

The damage caused by Armenia during the years of occupation of Azerbaijani lands exceeds about $819 billion, according to the latest calculations showed in the report.