Day: May 24, 2024

On May 21, the Honourable Greg Fergus, Speaker of the House of Commons of Canada and Her Excellency Anahit Harutyunyan, Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia to Canada co-hosted a photo exhibit in the House of Commons, entitled “Nagorno-Karabakh: Endangered Armenian Heritage”. The exhibit included works of Canadian Armenian photographer Hrair “Hawk” Khatcherian from his book “Artsakh: The Photographer’s Eye.՞

In her opening remarks, Armenia’s Ambassador thanked the Speaker and other colleagues for fruitful cooperation. Ambassador Harutyunyan emphasized that Azerbaijan is currently erasing all the traces of presence of indigenous Artsakh Armenians through destruction, appropriation and desecration of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage of Artsakh.

In that context, the Ambassador drew parallels with the systematic policy of Azerbaijan which led to destruction of almost 99% of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage in Nakhichevan. While stressing the significance of preserving Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh, she attached great importance to urgent international efforts towards that aim, as a global responsibility.

Speaker Fergus touched upon the inadmissibility of destruction and desecration of the centuries-old Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. He underlined the importance of fighting to prevent such actions as the mentioned items constitute part of the heritage of mankind.

The exhibit was attended by the members of Parliament, Senators, including members of Canada-Armenia Parliamentary Friendship Group, the Honorary Consul of Armenia in Quebec, as well as other public officials, and guests.

From May 24 the border guard troops of the National Security Service (NSS) of the Republic of Armenia officially take over the protection of the 6.8 km section of the border with Azerbaijan near the settlements of Berkaber, Voskepar and Baghanis in Tavush province.

According to NSS, the protection of the 5.8 km section of the Kirants settlement will be carried out by a transitional scheme until July 24, 2024.

According to the same logic, from May 24, the State Border Guard Service of the Republic of Azerbaijan will protect the border from the opposite side.

As a result of the delimitation operations, the border line between Azerbaijan and Armenia with a length of 12.7 km was determined. This ensured the return to Azerbaijan of the territories (6.5 km2) of 4 villages of the Gazakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan: Baganis Ayrim, Ashagi Askipara, Kheyrymli…