The Russian Foreign Ministry said today, Thursday, that Minister Sergey Lavrov will discuss next week with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, how to implement the Karabakh agreement, while the Azerbaijani president visited areas that his forces had retaken and strongly criticized the United Nations Science, Culture and Arts Organization (UNESCO).
A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, revealed that the Turkish Foreign Minister will make an official visit on December 29 to the Russian city of Sochi, at the invitation of his Russian counterpart.
She added that Cavusoglu will participate during the visit in the eighth meeting of the joint strategic planning group, which is held on the sidelines of the high-level Turkish-Russian Cooperation Council meeting.
Zakharova indicated that the Karabakh agreement will be at the forefront of issues at the ministers' table, along with a number of other regional and international issues.
It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani army regained areas of the disputed Karabakh region with Armenia, after battles that lasted 44 days.
On November 10, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Azerbaijan and Armenia had reached a ceasefire agreement, providing for Baku to regain control of the occupied provinces before the end of this year.
War crime
In a related context, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev criticized the United Nations Organization for Science, Culture and Arts (UNESCO) for ignoring the religious and historical monuments "that were burned by the occupying Armenian forces in the Karabakh region."
This came in statements made by Aliyev during a visit today, Thursday, to the cities of Qubadli and Zangilan, "liberated from the Armenian occupation."
Aliyev explained that the Armenian forces' burning of historical and religious places is a war crime, calling for the perpetrators to be held accountable.
He said, "A UNESCO official asked us several days ago to be careful about the Armenian monuments in the region, and we told them that we attach importance to historical places, but you as an organization: Have you paid attention to our historical mosques during the period of the Armenian occupation?"
"Despite our warning several times about our historical monuments being vandalized, UNESCO did not send a fact-finding committee, and our demands were ignored," he added.
He stressed that the fate of the Armenian state will be very dire if it thinks about revenge and returns to the idea of occupying the Azerbaijani lands.
He pointed out that his country's government will rebuild all cities, villages and historical places "which were destroyed by the Armenian forces before their withdrawal."