“Interpol’s charter strictly prohibits the organization from becoming involved in matters of a political, military, religious, or racial nature.
Presenting claims regarding cultural property evacuated from a conflict zone in order to save it from destruction is an attempt to use police channels as a tool of geopolitical pressure.
The cultural property in question is an inseparable part of Armenian Christian heritage.
To understand Azerbaijan’s double standards, one need only recall the well-documented cases of destruction of cultural property by Azerbaijan: the systematic destruction of more than 3,000 historic Armenian khachkars (cross-stones) and thousands of tombstones in Nakhichevan between 1998 and 2006, and the conversion of the area into a military firing range; the complete obliteration of hundreds of Armenian churches and cemeteries in Nakhichevan; the shelling of the Ghazanchetsots Church in Shushi in 2020 and the subsequent removal of its symbolic dome; and, after 2020, the complete dismantling of the Kanach Zham (St. John the Baptist) Church in Shushi, the St. Sargis Church of Mokhrenis, and hundreds of other historic monuments.
To this day, abundant evidence exists demonstrating that the policy of erasing, distorting, and destroying medieval Armenian monuments continues in all territories under Azerbaijan’s control” — Raffi Kortoshian, co-director of the Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA) Foundation
