"Dear participants, on a separate note, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep gratitude to the ICESCO, personally to Director-General Dr. Salim Al Malik, for the valuable support during last year’s 44-day Patriotic War as a result of which Azerbaijan liberated its occupied territories after almost 30 years of occupation by Armenia and thus restored historical justice. One month ago, at the invitation of the President of Azerbaijan, a delegation of ICESCO led by the Director-General visited Azerbaijan. Our guests had a chance to visit some of our liberated lands and witness with their own eyes the scope of destruction and vandalism, including tens of desecrated mosques and hundreds of destroyed historical monuments," First Vice-President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva said Feb. 11 at an event held in a video format on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science as part of the ‘Year of Women’ declared by ICESCO, Report informs referring to AzerTag.
"Now the Government faces a huge task: to bring life back to liberated territories and to ensure the return of Azerbaijani internally displaced persons to their native lands. And we will do it. We will restore destroyed cities and villages. We will build schools therein. We will restore the cultural heritage, and not only of Islamic origin but of all religions as a whole. We highly appreciate ICESCO’s readiness to work with the Government of Azerbaijan assessing the damage to Azerbaijan’s cultural heritage sites destroyed during occupation. Also, please accept our special gratitude for considering the opening of the ICESCO regional office in Azerbaijan, which among other fields, could strengthen our cooperation in the field of science with a specific focus to increase the role of women and girls in science," Mehriban Aliyeva said.