The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has expressed its protest over propaganda events planned by Russia on the grounds of the Khan's Palace in occupied Bakhchysarai, scheduled to take place from October 31 to November 1. The MFA called on UNESCO to respond to the actions of the Russian Federation and strengthen the protection of Crimean Tatar cultural heritage. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports this, writes UNN.
The Khan's Palace is a historical and cultural landmark of global significance, included by Ukraine on the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The Russian Federation continues to systematically wage war against the Crimean Tatar people, their culture, historical memory, and the world's cultural heritage. The occupiers' criminal actions are documented during monitoring conducted by UNESCO in temporarily occupied Crimea since 2014
The ministry noted that Ukraine had already officially informed UNESCO's leadership and the organization's member states of the Russians' intention to hold the event in temporarily occupied Bakhchysarai.
We call on the Director-General of UNESCO, its relevant bodies, and the Organization's member states to immediately employ all available international instruments aimed at ending Russia's practice, as the power temporarily occupying Crimea, of turning the cultural monuments of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people into an instrument of imperial propaganda and the justification and glorification of the occupation
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on UNESCO to take the following measures:
- Provide a principled assessment of Russia's propaganda activities in the temporarily occupied Crimea.
- Strengthen international mechanisms for protecting Ukraine's and the Crimean Tatars' cultural heritage.
- Consider strengthening the Russian Federation's accountability for the systematic destruction of Ukraine's cultural heritage, which bears signs of war crimes.