Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, Chair of the Great National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Şentop and Chair of the National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Asad Qaiser together with their respective delegations travelled to the town of Shusha on 29 July.

There, the guests first arrived at the Saatlı Mosque and were told that that mosque had been demolished sharing the fate of the other mosques and monuments of religion and culture in the period of the Armenian occupation. Rebuilding and restoration work is under way at that mosque at present.

Next, the parliament speakers went to the Town Square to be shown the place at which President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey had signed the historic Shusha Declaration which encompasses all the facts of the co-operation between the brotherly and friendly states of Azerbaijan and Turkey and elevates our relationship to its summit.

The chairs of the parliaments of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan then arrived at the bullet-ridden statutes of the outstanding Azerbaijanis Khurshidbanu Natavan, Bulbul and Uzeir Hajibeyov. They were told that, in the occupation years, the Armenians had taken those monuments away to Armenia meaning to have them melted down. Well, those same statutes were bought and brought back to Azerbaijan eventually at the instance of the Great Leader Heydar Aliyev. They had been stored in the courtyard of Baku Arts Museum until Shusha was de-occupied, whereupon they were reinstalled at their former spots in Shusha.

The guests were shown to the Armenian-destroyed house of Khurshidbanu Natavan afterwards. It was pointed out to them that the lyrical poetess’ house had been considered one of the architectural gems of Shusha prior to the town’s capture by Armenia. One of the most beautiful edifices of Shusha, the house of Natavan had stood out in the urban landscape. The Armenians razed it down on purpose after they had occupied Shusha in 1992.

 Chair of the Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova, Chair of the Great National Assembly of Turkey Mustafa Şentop and Chair of the National Assembly of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan Asad Qaiser as well as their delegations were also shown the Shusha Stronghold walls and the Upper and the Lower Mosques of Govkhar Aga.

The parliamentary delegations also went down to the Chidir Plain and took a joint memorable photograph there.

The Press and Public Relations Department

The Milli Majlis