Baku Declaration of 5th Session of the ICTM condemns deliberate destruction of Islamic monuments by Armenia

The Deceleration reflects reaffirmation of previous conferences and meetings, being committed to policy of openness and close cooperation with the world's relevant international organizations operating in the field of tourism and cultural exchanges such as UNWTO and UNESCO, reiteration of Islam as a religion of Pease and advocating principles of appreciation of human values, tolerance with regard to religion and races and peaceful coexistence of all nations, the vital role of diplomacy in the development of tourism.

The Declaration reads that terrorism, conflicts, territorial occupation, natural disasters, epidemics and economic crises seriously harm the economic development and negatively affect the tourism potential of the Member States.

It also says that the important role of tourism for intercultural exchanges, preservation and popularization of Islamic historical and cultural heritage, promotion of better knowledge and mutual understanding among civilizations as well as the role of the tourism can play in overall improvement of the image of Islam.

In the Declaration it was decided to join efforts toward increasing the tourism flow among the Member States, create favourable climate for investment projects in the sector of tourism and related activities, urge member States to actively participate in tourism fairs in OIC countries, promote youth tourism, develop tourism in costal and rural types of tourism, simplification of visa issuance procedures with non-OIC countries, condemn any manifestation of terrorism and aggressive separatism and stress the importance of expeditious solution of conflicts, all of which have detrimental impact on tourism and on the exercise of peoples' right for leisure and travel, strong condemn the illegal exploitation of natual resources and the destruction of cultural and historical monuments in the territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia as well as the deliberate destruction of Islamic cultural and historic monuments in the territory of Armenia in accordance with the norms and principles of international law, particularly those related to the territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of a state.

The other adopted a resolution endorses the efforts of ICCI aimed at encouraging the private sector to play its due role in promoting tourism and takes note of the initiative of ICCI to establish an International Tourism Company, adaptation of open visa for the movement of businessmen among the OIC member states, facilitating of the movement of media people among the movement States in order to utilize the media to serve the purposes of tourism, promote youth tourism in OIC countries, condemn Israeli aggression.

The Declaration expresses gratitude to Mr. Ilham Aliyev for kindly patronizing the Conference and for his guidance-giving speech he delivered at the opening ceremony as well as thanks to the government and the people of Azerbaijan for the warm welcome and generous hospitality extended to the delegations.

/APA/