Nalbandian: in Azerbaijan, a whole generation grew up on the rhetoric of hatred towards Armenians

ArmInfo. Effective management of the organization is important in the fulfillment of UNESCO's objectives. This November 1 in Paris during a speech at the plenary session of the 39th session of the General Conference of UNESCO said the Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian.

As the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told ArmInfo, the Armenian minister noted that education occupies an important place among these goals. "Armenia co-authored and promoted a number of initiatives in the field of education both within the UN and UNESCO, and we are also working closely with UNESCO to develop a strategy for Higher Education in Armenia for 2017-2030 .The Armenian society's striving for education, science and knowledge has deep roots Two years later the Yerevan State University celebrates its 100th anniversary and 800 years ago the capital of the Cilician Kingdom had a secular higher educational institution - the University of Sis. For centuries Armenians preserved these educational traditions, "- from Nalbandian.

According to the Armenian Minister, education is a powerful tool for promoting the values accepted by the organization. At the same time, he regretted the fact that some states use education for conflicting purposes - sowing national hatred, especially among young people.  "There are a lot of similar examples in the school textbooks of Azerbaijan, where children are taught that Armenians are their genetic enemies." The report of the European Commission for the Prevention of Racism and Intolerance of 2016 states that "The political leadership of Azerbaijan, educational institutions and the media continue to voice calls full of hatred to the Armenians. In Azerbaijan, a whole generation grew up on this rhetoric of hatred for Armenians. "The charter of UNESCO rightly states that" the war begins in the minds of people. "The societies will not be ready for reconciliation unless the need to protect the world is fixed in their minds.The famous German writer Heinrich Heine said, "Where books are burned, people will be burned at the end." The books of the famous Azerbaijani writer were burned in the streets of Baku, only because he told the truth about the pogroms of Armenians and called for reconciliation.He told the story of his native village in Nakhi 12 years old, in his childhood, there were 12 Armenian churches: they were all destroyed in Nakhijevan and throughout Azerbaijan along with many other shrines and cemeteries in the 1990s and 2000. Likewise, with the permission of the Azerbaijani authorities, they were compared to the land thousands of medieval Armenian khachkars of the Jugha cemetery, today this territory has been turned into a military training ground, "Nalbandian said.

According to the head of the Armenian Foreign Ministry, after ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population of Azerbaijan, Baku set a goal to destroy the memory of Armenian multi-thousand presence in the region - any trace of the Armenian culture and history of the indigenous people.

The Armenian minister expressed his conviction that Baku was wiping out the past, as it does not correspond to the present-day Azerbaijan, most likely following the well-known words of the writer George Orwell "who controls the present, that controls the past." "Those who control Azerbaijan today believe that they can rewrite history in order to legitimize today's policy of intolerance," the Armenian minister said.  At the 39th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, held from 30 October to 14 November in Paris, representatives of all 195 Member States of the Organization gathered to determine the budget, direction of programs and activities of the Organization for the next two years. On the margins of the General Conference, a rich program of side events is planned, including presentations and discussions on key issues in all areas of UNESCO's competence: education, science and culture, as well as information and communication.