Destruction of Jugha Cemetery Reported

[Stormig]

Anyone heard about this?

 

AZG Armenian Daily #223, 05/12/2002

 

Culture

 

ARMENIAN CULTURAL VALUES VANDALIZED AND DESTROYED IN AZERBAIJAN

 

Following reports that Armenian cemeteries in historic Jugha (presently Julfa) in Azerbaijani

exclave Nakhichevan, bordering upon Iran are being vandalized, the National Council of Armenians of

Nakhichevan has convened a meeting today in Yerevan and called on President of Armenia Robert

Kocharian, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, the Catholicos of the Holy See of Cilicia Aram I,

the National Assembly and the Government of Armenia, as well as Diaspora organizations to raise

their voice against the cultural genocide committed by Azerbaijan, Armenpress reported.

 

The Council has also applied to UNESCO asking that an international commission be formed to examine

the damaged historical monuments on location, as well as to ask that the Jugha cemetery be turned

into an international historical and cultural neutral zone.

 

The Council said, citing a France-based "Country and Culture" organization, that a cemetery-church

was recently destroyed, witnessed by Iranian border guards on the other bank of the River Arax. The

historic cemetery, located 10-km from Julfa (Iran) and across the northern bank of the Arax River,

has three hills, each representing different eras from the Twelfth to Seventeenth centuries.

 

The destruction of the cemetery had began much earlier, but after alarming signals by the Country

and Culture organization the vandalism stopped in 1998. Now Azerbaijani authorities have resumed

their vandal acts.

 

At the beginning of Twentieth century, the cemetery in which ancestors of former Nor Jugha Armenians

were buried, had some 12,000 khachkars (cross stones). Due to premeditated destruction by the Azeri

Government, the cemetery now has less than 2000 unique khachkars, most of them vandalized.

Apparently the Azeris, who had stopped the vandalism under the pressure of the international

community more than five years ago, have decided to complete their initial plan to thoroughly

cleanse the site.

 

© Copyright AZG

[Yervant1]

http://www.armradio.am/en/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/logo_up_en.png

 

Documentary presents the history of Jugha and the destruction of its cemetery

 

 

13:12 01.02.2013

 

 

 

The premiere of Jugha documentary, produced by Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation, was held in Yerevan.

Within 20 minutes, the film presents the history of the historical city of Jugha and the destruction of its world-known cemetery by the authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan and Azerbaijan.

The film is now presented in English.

[Yervant1]

14:10 02/02/2013 » Region

‘‘The Hill’’:In 2005 Azerbaijan committed cultural genocide against thousands of Armenian religious monuments in Jugha

 

 

Aliev’s regime embarked on a Taliban-style cultural genocide in 2005 against thousands of medieval Armenian religious monuments in Jugha, Nackichevan. This has been well-documented by video footage, photographs and advanced satellite imaging, scientist of Oxford University Harout Semerdjian says in the article in “The Hill’s” Congress Block responding to the note of the Azerbaijani journalist Emil Agazade residing in London.

 

Mr. Semerdjian writes that in his article Agazade “passes all limits of journalistic ethics and crosses into the boundary of hate and ignorance.”

 

“Instead of attempting to give Congress a counter-lesson on history and geopolitics, I would highly suggest that Emil Agazade first help put his own house in order. Transparency International consistently ranks Azerbaijan among the most corrupt countries of the world, and its president Ilham Aliyev was recently named the “world’s most corrupt leader” by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project,” the scientist writes.

 

The article also says that the journalists in Azerbaijan continue to suffer from violence and threats, and pro-democracy activists have been beaten and imprisoned in recent years and the European Parliament has explicitly condemned Azerbaijan for “increasing number of incidents of harassment, attacks and violence against civil society and social network activists and journalists in Azerbaijan,” the report says.

The author also notes that the International diplomats have been repeatedly banned by Azerbaijani authorities from visiting Jugha, including past and present U.S. Ambassadors to Azerbaijan, Matthew Bryza and Richard Morningstar. “While the petro-dollars of the Aliyev regime fund lobbyists such as Emil Agazade to monitor the global media and attempt to suppress freedom of information, it would be much wiser for Azerbaijan’s leadership to spend the money at home, where over 40 percent of the rural population live below the poverty line,” Harout Semerdjian writes.

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

DESTRUCTION OF JUGHA CROSS STONES REVEALS THE REAL FACE OF AZERBAIJAN: NA DEPUTY SPEAKER

25.05.2015

On May 24 the delegation led by the RA NA Deputy Speaker Eduard
Sharmazanov being on a working visit in Japan, composed of the Head
of Armenia-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Group Samvel Farmanyan and
the member of the delegation Alexander Arzumanyan in Tokyo took part
in the closing ceremony of the event Armenian Cultural Week. The RA
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Japan Hrant Poghosyan
accompanied the parliamentary delegation. At the event the NA Deputy
Speaker delivered a speech, particularly noting:

"We would like to express our special satisfaction with the event
Armenian Cultural Week, which was held on May 19-24 in Tokyo within the
framework of the Armenian Genocide Centennial. It is an unprecedented
positive step in the development of the Armenian-Japanese cultural
relations.

I should note with regret that we, Armenians, as bearers of
millennia-old cultural heritage, even in the 21st century witness
the destruction of the Armenian millennia-old cultural heritage
by the barbarians, which is not simply possible to call other way,
than cultural genocide. The vivid evidence of this is the destruction
of the cemetery with centuries-old thousands of unique cross stones
of Jugha in Nakhijevan, which was resided by the Armenians before
and afterwards they were depopulated. It reveals the real face
of Azerbaijan, as well as the destruction of dozens of Armenian
monuments in the territory of present Turkey and the explosion of
the Deir ez-Zor Surb Nahatakats/Saint Martyrs' Armenian Church by the
terrorists several months ago. We should bring together our efforts
for completely excluding such atrocities in future."

http://www.parliament.am/news.php?cat_id=2&NewsID=7563&year=2015&month=05&day=25&lang=eng