UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Mehriban Aliyeva Must Be Dismissed But her husband’s personal acceptance of laundered money from Azerbaijan appears to shed a light on Irina Bokova’s intransigent refusal to acknowledge, let alone seek accountability for, Azerbaijan’s destruction of medieval Djulfa and other monuments of the region’s ancient Armenian civilization. While Irina Bokova has repeatedly and justifiably condemned ISIS vandalism of Assyrian, Christian, Islamic, Yezidi, and Hellenistic sites, she has failed to do so in the case of Azerbaijan’s state-sponsored, deliberate, and systematic targeting of medieval Armenian monuments despite UNESCO’s awareness of Djulfa’s destruction, as evidenced by its World Heritage Centre director Francesco Bandarin’s 2011 … Bokova was the Director General of UNESCO at the time. In 2013, after a $5 million donation from Baku, UNESCO held a photo exhibition called Azerbaijan — Land Of Tolerance, at its Paris headquarters. Web Design and Maintenance by ImagOvation, UNESCO’s Corrupt Former Director General Irina Bokova To Speak At AIEA’s ‘Internationalization’ Conference, Association of International Education Administrators, bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal, hosted a photo exhibition at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, arresting dozens of civil society activists. Bokova was rewarded generously for turning a blind eye, including receiving laundered money through her husband. Photograph: Vugar Amrullayev/president.az Sun 1 Oct 2017 14.04 EDT Share this: UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova Djulfa.com has consistently criticized UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova’s unflinching and hitherto inexplicable support of oil-rich Azerbaijan, despite the latter’s deliberate desecration of ancient archeological sites. Bokova has bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. The relationship was particularly favorable between Mehriban Aliyeva and Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO, 2009-2017. In light of her husband’s connection to the recently-revealed Azerbaijani money laundering scheme, we call on Director-General Bokova to resign before November’s expiration of her second and final term. Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 26 Trend: UNESCO and Azerbaijan have fruitful cooperation, which has existed for more than 20 years, according to the Director General of UNESCO Irina Bokova. ... BP and Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy firm are key partners. General-Director Bokova’s general cooperation with a regime that has destroyed more Christian heritage than ISIS might have been necessitated by America’s 2011 defunding of UNESCO, an unfortunate circumstance brilliantly analyzed by former Daily Show correspondent John Oliver. In 2019, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held its annual meeting in Baku. Why AIEA’s president Dr. Adel El Zaïm or anyone at the organization would ask Bokova to speak is a mystery. She bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. Djulfa.com Calls on UNESCO Chief to Resign Over Corrupt Azerbaijani Payments to Her Husband. Djulfa.com Calls on UNESCO Chief to Resign Over Corrupt Azerbaijani Payments to Her Husband, ANCA Hovig Apo Saghdejian Capital Gateway Program. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev paid Bokova’s husband, Kalin Mitrev, a Bulgarian appointed last year to the board of the London-based European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a total of $468,000. The theme of the conference this year is ‘Leading Internationalization in a New Era: Collaborating for Global Solutions.’. Founded in 2007 by Denver-based educator and activist Simon Maghakyan, the Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum – Djulfa.com partners with institutional and individual cultural rights defenders across the world to document, publicize, and pursue accountability for the intentional destruction of the largest medieval Armenian cemetery at Djulfa, originally called Jugha and often spelled as Julfa or Culfa, as well as other monuments of the earliest Christian civilization in the Azerbaijan Republic’s formerly-Armenian exclave of Nakhichevan, today known as Naxçıvan. In November 2013, four months after accepting a $5 million donation from Azerbaijan on behalf of cash-strapped UNESCO, Irina Bokova helped unveil the absurdly-titled “Azerbaijan: A Land of Tolerance” exhibit in Paris, where the organization is headquartered. Baku, Azerbaijan, May 6. Sep 8, 2017 Djulfa.com has consistently criticized UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova’s unflinching and hitherto inexplicable support of oil-rich Azerbaijan, despite the latter’s deliberate desecration of ancient archeological sites. That an organization as well-known as UNESCO would host such an event at a time when Azerbaijan was arresting dozens of civil society activists was unusual, and was criticized at the time. Bokova then wrote a letter to The Guardian [newspaper] defending the rightfulness of her relationship with Azerbaijan, but never spoke openly about … Trend: Azerbaijan is committed to the UNESCO principles, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said. Bokova has reportedly maintained a very close, friendly relationship with the Azerbaijan President Aliyev and his family (source: European Values Bought and Sold[5]). The opening ceremony of The Peace Tree was held On May 17, 2015. He received six payments totaling  $468,000 between 2012 and 2014 from three laundromat companies to accounts in Bulgaria and Switzerland. During her political and diplomatic career in Bulgaria, she served, among others, two terms as a member of the National parliament, and deputy minister of foreign affairs and minister of foreign affairs ad interim under Prime Minister Zhan Videnov. Such cultural exhibitions are not as innocuous as they may seem. In turn, Mrs. Irina Bokova asked him to convey his greetings and best wishes to President Ilham Aliyev and Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva, first Lady of Azerbaijan, President of Heydar Aliyev Foundation, Goodwill Ambassador of UNESCO and ISESCO. She also hosted a photo exhibition at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, entitled Azerbaijan – A Land of Tolerance. In comparison, according to the Assyrian International News Agency, ISIS terrorists have destroyed a mere 16 churches in Syria, many of which may be subject to restoration upon liberation. Analysts believe that senior UNESCO officials were effectively bought off with the so-called “caviar diplomacy’ that oil-rich Azerbaijan is known for. Additionally, we call on Director-General Bokova to publicly oppose the Aliyev regime’s candidate for UNESCO director-general, Polad Bülbüloğlu, who was Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture at the time of Djulfa’s destruction. Bulgaria-born Mitrev is the husband of Irina Bokova, the general director of UNESCO. Despite her well-known close ties to the brutal regime in Azerbaijan, Bokova denied knowledge of her husband’s schemes. Dr. Adel El Zaïm and other leaders of the organization should uninvite Irina Bokova to their conference. She was a regular guest in Baku and 2010 and bestowed a UNESCO honor, the Mozart medal, on Mehriban Aliyeva, Azerbaijan’s first lady and the First Vice President. During Irina Bokova’s tenure at UNESCO, her husband Kalin Mitrev received at a minimum €425,000 in Bulgarian and Swiss accounts from Hilux, Polux and Metastar, the core companies that power the Azerbaijani Laundromat[1]. After analyzing the family’s known income, Bivol questioned whether they could afford the property. I short, Bokova took a substantial amount of money from the President of Azerbaijan to stay silent about the Azerbaijan’s destruction of over 2,000 Armenian churches, monasteries, monuments, cemeteries, and antiquity. Opening ceremony of the festival was charged to Royal Philarmonic Orchestra . Let's just recall that only a few days before that Irina Bokova organized a photo exhibition "Azerbaijan: Tolerance Area". Azerbaijan’s lobbying isn’t limited to junkets, gifts, and donations. Despite eyewitness video and photo evidence, verified by the American Association for the Advancement of Science through satellite analysis, the Aliyev regime denied the destruction of Djulfa, claiming that the cemetery never existed in the first place. She also served as Bulgaria's ambassador to France and to Monaco, and was Bulgaria's Permanent Dele… Another highlight involved reporting on a story about Kalin Mitrev, the European husband of UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova who received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Laundromat. She bestowed one of Unesco’s highest honours, the Mozart Medal on Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. Bokova was the Director General of UNESCO at the time. An additional over $40,000 did not arrive in his account after two attempts to make the transaction were rejected by Deutsche Bank “due to sensitivities.” Under current anti-money laundering legislation, banks must reject suspicious transactions. Many people have criticized Bokova’s silence after the 2005 razing of Julfa and contrasted it with the organization’s strong response to the 2001 destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in Afghanistan, and of the ancient city of Palmyra by Islamic State militants in Syria in 2015. She was a regular guest in Baku and in 2010, she bestowed a UNESCO honor, the Mozart medal, on Mehriban Aliyeva, Azerbaijan’s first lady (who, since February, has also been the country’s vice president). In December 2005, alone, over one-hundred Azerbaijani soldiers carried out a week-long operation to obliterate the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery – Djulfa, an archaeological wonder that also constituted Eurasia’s largest collection of historic Christian cross-stones. Source: Asbarez Despite her well-known close ties to the brutal regime in Azerbaijan, Bokova denied knowledge of her husband’s schemes. The opening of the monument was made by the First Lady of Azerbaijan, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova and the author of The Peace Tree Hedva Ser. Mr Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in Baku, Azerbaijan.The Director-General thanked the President for his leadership in fostering new forms of dialogue between cultures, as taken forward also in the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, currently being held in Baku. In 2010, Bokova bestowed UNESCO’s Mozart Medal on Mehriban Aliyeva, Azerbaijan’s first lady and now also the country’s vice president. [3] Moreover, according to some sources, money from Azerbaijan was also transferred to the account of UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova's husband, Kalinin Mitrov. One of the individuals scheduled to speak is Irina Bokova, the former Director-General of UNESCO from 2009 to 2017. The Heydar Aliyev foundation organized the event. As such, we are outraged yet unsurprised to learn from The Guardian’s September 4, 2017 report that Director-General Bokova’s husband has received over half-a-million-dollars as part of an all-too-obvious Azerbaijani ‘quid pro quo’ corruption and money laundering scheme. While Irina Bokova has repeatedly and justifiably condemned ISIS vandalism of Assyrian, Christian, Islamic, Yezidi, and Hellenistic sites, she has failed to do so in the case of Azerbaijan’s state-sponsored, deliberate, and systematic targeting of medieval Armenian monuments despite UNESCO’s awareness of Djulfa’s destruction, as evidenced by its World Heritage Centre director Francesco Bandarin’s 2011 official correspondence with our organization. Read this article if you wish to know the nauseating irony for Azerbaijan to be called ‘A Land of Tolerance.’. Link: Djulfa.com Calls on UNESCO Chief to Resign Over Corrupt Azerbaijani Payments to Her Husband, © Armenian National Committee of America, 2015, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window). According to Research on Armenian Architecture, a nonprofit institute that meticulously documents medieval monuments in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan has bulldozed and flattened 218 medieval Armenian churches in Nakhichevan – the region that includes Djulfa. Over the years, Kalin Mitrev has repeatedly visited Azerbaijan in the company of his wife Irina Bokova, something that can be proven by numerous reports in local media and photographs with Azerbaijani officials in Mitrev’s presence, probably in his capacity of “first man” of the UNESCO boss. Azerbaijan is committed to the UNESCO principles, Director-General of UNESCO Irina Bokova said. Bokova and her husband’s standard salary versus their lavish lifestyle has warranted red flags. While Azerbaijan’s destruction of Armenian monuments started in 1988 following widespread calls for the return of Armenian-populated Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) to Armenia as the Soviet Union was collapsing, the systematic eradication of every trace of medieval Armenian memory was launched and completed nearly two decades later under the current presidency. Aliyev also has international loyalists, such as UNESCO’s corrupt chief and UN Secretary General candidate Irina Bokova, who has accepted generous donations from Azerbaijan’s bloody dictator then allowed him to use UNESCO platforms to spread propaganda. Bokova’s cozy relationship with Azerbaijan ruling family has served her and her husband very well through the years. The Director-General thanked the President for his leadership in fostering new forms of dialogue between cultures, as taken forward also in the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, currently being held in Baku. Various investigative reports by reputable publications such as The Guardian, note numerous evidence and discoveries of fraud, corruption, abuse & malpractice on her reputation and career. She has since made several trips to the Azerbaijani capital for the ‘Baku World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue;’ praised president Ilham Aliyev for “fostering new forms of dialogue between cultures;” allowed Azerbaijan to appoint UNESCO staff as “loaned personnel;” and has given Aliyev a platform at the UNESCO Leaders’ Forum to lecture the world on tolerance and shift the blame of cultural genocide to Armenians. Unesco’s director-general, Irina Bokova, meets Azerbaijan’s first vice-president, Mehriban Aliyeva. The Heydar Aliyev foundation organized the event. She also hosted a photo exhibition at Unesco’s headquarters in Paris, entitled Azerbaijan – A Land of Tolerance. On May 30, Irina Bokova met with H.E. Promoting itself as a tolerant country is a tactic through which the Azerbaijani government ingratiates itself with the West and deflects criticism of its human rights record. Bokova owns property in Manhattan worth more than $3 million, reported the Bulgarian website and OCCRP partner Bivol. Irina Bokova's husband Kalin Mitrev received EUR 425,000 from a slush fund of the regime in Baku Bulgarian Connection: Husband of UNESCO Director General Exposed in “Azerbaijani Laundromat” Екип на Биволъ 4 September 2017 The author of The Peace Tree is Hedra Ser UNESCO “Artist for Peace”. Bokova made remarks a meeting of the National Commission for UNESCO, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of establishing the relations between Azerbaijan and UNESCO, in Baku May 6. During her official visit to Azerbaijan from 28 July to 1st August 2010, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova inaugurated the 2nd Gabala International Music Festival on 30 July 2010, in the presence of Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Mehriban Aliyeva, First Lady of Azerbaijan and UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Oral and Musical Traditions. Despite conclusive evidence to the contrary, the Aliyev regime proclaims that it preserves Armenian heritage by pointing to the physical existence of a state-confiscated 19th-century Armenian church in downtown Baku, while unfoundedly accusing the twin states of the Armenian homeland – Armenia and the internationally-unrecognized republic of Artsakh – for the systematic destruction of Islamic monuments. General director of UNESCO Irina Bokova was in the opening ceremony of the festival. Mr Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, in Baku, Azerbaijan. Irina Bokova tarnishes the reputation of AIEA. Djulfa.com has consistently criticized UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova’s unflinching and hitherto inexplicable support of oil-rich Azerbaijan, despite the latter’s deliberate desecration of ancient archeological sites. Bokova has ignored all criticism and maintains a friendly relationship with the Aliyevs. Mitrev said that the payments had been legitimate fees for “consultancy work” he had done for an Azerbaijani company called Avuar-Co LLC. The festival began with the performance of overture from Uzeyir Hajibeyov's "Koroglu" opera as in 2009. Your generosity empowers our advocacy, inspires our work, and sustains our momentum. “High-level relations between Azerbaijan and UNESCO might be a good example for other countries”, she added. The reports were a “doomed political attack” on his wife, Irina Bokova, the director general of Unesco, Mitrev said. That Azerbaijan, a top jailer of journalists ranked as the world’s 5th most-censored country, is no land of tolerance is widely-known, but few are aware of its state-sponsored eradication of the region’s vast medieval Christian heritage. On May 30, Irina Bokova met with H.E. Irina Georgieva Bokova (Bulgarian: Ирина Георгиева Бокова; born 12 July 1952) is a Bulgarian politician and the former Director-General of UNESCO (2009–2017). Since inheriting the presidency from his father in 2003, and emboldened by Azerbaijan’s oil-revenues due to the 2005 launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, Ilham Aliyev has spearheaded the complete destruction of Western Azerbaijan’s entire medieval Christian heritage – consisting of hundreds of churches and thousands of cross-stones – due to the latter’s association with the region’s indigenous Armenian civilization. Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) will hold its annual conference virtually from February 15 through February 17, 2021.