“I declare Shusha to be the capital of Azerbaijani culture. The city of Shusha deserves that. I think that it can be considered not only the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, but also of the entire region,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he received in a video format Anar Karimov on his appointment as Minister of Culture.

Noting that work has already begun on the restoration of Shusha, the head of state said: “The housing stock and historical sites must be inspected, the damage must be accurately calculated, and we must begin the restoration of Shusha. However, the original appearance and the historical image of Shusha must be restored without wasting time, but at the same time without haste.”

President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that the mosques in Shusha must be overhauled, restored and their original appearance returned to them.

“The Armenians have destroyed more than 60 of our mosques. Pigs and cows were kept in the Aghdam mosque. A photo recently published by an Armenian journalist on the Internet infuriated the entire Azerbaijani people yet again. On that photo, the executioner of the Azerbaijani people, former President of Armenia Kocharyan stands in front of a mosque in the occupied city of Aghdam with his thugs and bandits. Insulting inscriptions can be seen on the walls of the Aghdam mosque. Notice who led Armenia, what executioner, someone with such mundane moral values! They have destroyed the city and desecrated our mosque. They filled our mosque with cows and pigs and wrote insulting statements about our religion and our people on the walls of the mosque. It is Kocharyan who desecrated the mosque, painted insulting pictures on the walls of the mosque and wrote obscene words. His henchman Sargsyan and himself – they destroyed our cities for 20 years. Our cities were not destroyed during the war. It is impossible to destroy cities during the war. During the occupation after the war, all buildings and settlements were razed to the ground. They are vandals and barbarians but they ruled Armenia for 20 years,” President Ilham Aliyev emphasized.