Representatives of Artsakh have been denied an exhibition booth at COP17, former Artsakh State Minister Artak Beglaryan has said.
UNESCO Director-General Khaled El-Enany visited the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Zvartnots Cathedral as part of COP17. Meanwhile, Armenian authorities are failing to use the international platform to draw attention to Artsakh’s cultural heritage and natural environment, which Beglaryan says are being destroyed by Azerbaijan, as well as the rights of forcibly displaced Artsakh Armenians, Sputnik Armenia reports.
“Our organization, the Artsakh Union, submitted a formal application for a booth in the Green Zone as a civil society representative to present issues concerning the people of Artsakh and Artsakh’s biodiversity, as envisaged by COP17. They rejected our application and did not provide a booth. They may now offer various explanations, saying that others were also rejected and so on, but the fact remains that we were denied this opportunity,” Beglaryan said.
According to Beglaryan, the Artsakh Union’s application received a negative response without any explanation for the rejection. The organization submitted its application through the online system in accordance with the established procedure, but the response merely stated that it would not be possible to allocate an exhibition booth.
The former Artsakh State Minister said Armenian authorities were not only doing nothing to preserve Artsakh’s cultural heritage but were also “legitimizing Azerbaijani crimes and the occupation of Artsakh.”
“There have been numerous suitable occasions, and this is another excellent opportunity not only to raise the issue of cultural heritage, but also to address the rights of indigenous peoples more broadly, to explain what Azerbaijan has done and continues to do in Artsakh, both in terms of biodiversity and, more generally, the rights of Artsakh’s indigenous population. These rights are directly linked to biodiversity, particularly in light of United Nations standards,” Beglaryan said.
He emphasized that one of the issues on the COP17 agenda concerns the rights of indigenous peoples and local communities in the context of biodiversity.
Beglaryan believes that Armenian authorities are unwilling to use the opportunity, while civil society is unable to do so effectively because of obstacles created by the authorities. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that other civil society representatives participating in the conference through various formats and platforms would be able to raise the issue of Artsakh.
“The presence of numerous delegations and representatives of international nongovernmental organizations in Armenia is itself an opportunity for informal contacts, raising awareness and bringing issues to their attention. However, the problem is that regardless of what we present to the international community, we will not achieve tangible progress in protecting the rights of Artsakh Armenians as long as the Republic of Armenia does not defend our rights at the state level and, on the contrary, continues to obstruct us,” Beglaryan stressed.
