Baku, May 30, AZERTAC

A delegation of the Working Party on Eastern Europe and Central Asia (COEST) of the European Union Council has kicked off its visit to Azerbaijan.

The delegation of about 40 people includes diplomats in charge of the region in the accredited diplomatic missions of the EU member states in Brussels as well as officials of the EU Council, the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS).

The delegation of the COEST Group first visited the liberated territories of Azerbaijan.

As part of the trip, the delegation held meetings with Special Representative of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan in the liberated territories of the Karabakh Economic Region (except Shusha district) Emin Huseynov, as well as with senior officials of the State Commission for Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons, the State Committee For Affairs Of Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons and Azerbaijan’s Mine Action Agency (ANAMA).

The COEST delegation members were informed about the acts of vandalism committed by Armenia during the 30-year-long occupation, the destruction, the grave consequences of the occupation in general as well as the construction projects implemented after the second Karabakh war and the return of the former IDPs to the village of Aghali in Zangilan, the village of Talish in Tartar and the city of Lachin as part of the "Great Return" program. They were also provided with detailed information on the process of excavations and exhumations carried out in the territories liberated from occupation in order to find the remains of missing persons during the years of the first Karabakh war.

The delegation also familiarized themselves with the remains of the mosque destroyed by the Armenians in the village of Merdinli of the Fuzuli district, as well as the cemetery in the village of Garakhanbayli. The invaders did not leave a single safe building in Fuzuli, which was one of the developed cities of Azerbaijan. All residential and private houses in the city as well as the editorial office, the theater building and other buildings operating in the city center were razed to the ground.

The EU Council delegation also visited the liberated from occupation the city of Aghdam to witness the atrocities committed by Armenians as well as the ruins of the city, known as the "Caucasian Hiroshima", the surviving wall of the Drama Theater. Historical, cultural and architectural monuments, caves and barrows, tombs and tombstones were also subjected to destruction and acts of vandalism by Armenians.

The visitors also met with ANAMA employees in Aghdam and participated in the neutralization of some of the mines and unexploded ammunition found in the area.

As part of their trip to Azerbaijan, the EU delegation members will also meet with senior officials of a number of government agencies.