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Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia Artak Apitonian on Thursday held a video call with Nicolas Kassianides, Director of the Cabinet of UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, the Foreign Ministry reported.

The sides touched upon the issue of protection of the Armenian historical and religious heritage in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, in that context, highlighting the importance of sending a fact-finding mission of UNESCO to Artsakh.

Apitonian stressed the urgency of taking measures towards the protection of the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage in the territories that fell under the Azerbaijani control, taking into account the consistent steps of Azerbaijan aimed at deliberate destruction and desecration of the Armenian monuments, as well as the attempts to distort their identity. He pointed to the recent manifestations of the Azerbaijani aggression against the Armenian cultural and religious heritage. In particular, he noted that a video circulated on the internet by the BBC News service on Thursday, provides clear evidence that the Zoravor Surb Astvatsatsin Armenian Church in the vicinity of Mekhakavan settlement has been completely destroyed.

Touching upon the preparatory work for the fact-finding mission, the deputy foreign minister expressed grave concern over the policy pursued by Azerbaijan towards impeding the efficient involvement of UNESCO.

It was underscored that Azerbaijan's attempts of manipulating and unnecessarily politicizing the mission are absolutely unacceptable. The importance of conducting the mission in the format initially announced by the UNESCO chief and reiterated in the statement of the Intergovernmental Committee of the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention of 1954, was stressed.