PACE to delegate fact-finding mission to occupied regions

29/12/2005
AzerNews

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has announced it will delegate a mission to the region to look into the facts over the destruction of historic monuments. PACE confirmed its intention in an official reply, signed by the Council of Europe Secretary General Terry Davis, to official Baku's appeal sent earlier to international organizations.

Azerbaijan has set up a taskforce comprising head of the Azeri community of Upper Garabagh Nizami Bahmanov, as well as historians, archaeologists, national security ministry and military prosecutor's office representatives, to cooperate with PACE experts. In a recent statement, the community leader voiced his objection over the Council of Europe's decision to send the mission to the entire region, instead of only the occupied land.

"There is no need for the mission to visit Armenia or other Azeri regions and the move is not in line with the CE resolution on Garabagh…The main focus should be on the destruction of historic and cultural monuments in the occupied territories." The Azeri community leader said the Azykh Cave, a site of international importance, and other sites dating back many centuries have been destroyed, along with cemeteries and monuments in the ancient Azeri town of Shusha, which possesses 378 historical sites.

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