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LA CROIX

April 24 2024




Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh fear their religious heritage is in peril


As Armenians remember the 1915 genocide on April 24, many are concerned about their heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh. Since Azerbaijan's invasion in September 2023, the destruction of religious monuments has escalated.





Attempts to reclaim or destroy Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan have multiplied since the forced exodus of its population in September. Armenians have left behind a largely Christian cultural legacy – an official list established during the Soviet era catalogs over 4,000 monuments, many dating from the first half of the Middle Ages. Among them are 33 monasteries, 252 churches, 83 chapels, 1,840 khachkars (Armenian cross-stones), and 218 cemeteries.


The fate of this heritage is now a source of worry for many experts. Will it suffer the same fate as the Armenian heritage in the autonomous republic of Nakhichevan? This region, which belonged to Armenia before Sovietization, saw 98% of its heritage sites destroyed by Azerbaijanis between 1997 and 2011, according to a report by Caucasus Heritage Watch, a group of American scholars documenting attacks on Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan and Nagorno-Karabakh.


On April 4, satellite data analysis revealed the destruction of the 19th-century St. John the Baptist Church in the city of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh. This building, which had already been bombed by Azerbaijan during the 2020 war, has been razed.


Armenian scholars are hurrying to preserve this heritage, although they no longer have access to the monuments. Action from UNESCO is still uncertain, as it can only intervene with the agreement of the country where the endangered monuments are located.



Preserving Armenian memory

Anna Leyloyan, an art historian, created in June the NGO Hishatakaran – literally, "memorial". This group of researchers, based in Armenia, includes five Armenians, two of whom are refugees from Nagorno-Karabakh. Their main mission, according to Leyloyan, is to "establish passports for various monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh," which requires "mapping and inventorying heritage sites" by analyzing "satellite images, or referring to bibliographic or individual sources."


All "passports" meet the same academic standards, providing "geographical indication, a historical overview, and a detailed description enriched with illustrations." They also report about the monuments "before, during, and after successive wars." The idea, Leyloyan says, is "to preserve the memory of the monuments," while also preserving their "intangible heritage." "We document the traditions around pilgrimage sites," she explains.



The goal of this project, jointly funded by the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas (ALIPH) and the Gulbenkian Foundation, is to "create 2,000 passports within five years." While she hopes that Armenians can return to Karabakh and rebuild their monuments, Anna Leyloyan regrets Armenia's inaction "over the past 30 years" in mapping its heritage.



Fighting historical revisionism

This destruction is not only material: it is accompanied by historical revisionism. Since 1950, Azerbaijan has claimed ownership of Armenian monuments in the region. According to a theory widely disseminated since the 2020 war, these religious buildings are not Armenian but Azerbaijani because they were allegedly built by Caucasian Albanians – who have no connection to their namesakes in the Balkans – whose heritage Azerbaijanis claim to inherit. Thus, in February 2022, the former Azerbaijani Minister of Culture, Anar Karimov, announced the establishment of a working group tasked with removing "fictitious inscriptions left by Armenians on Albanian religious temples."


"While satellite monitoring makes it more difficult for Azerbaijan to destroy heritage sites, the erasure of Armenian inscriptions, found on the monuments, is unfortunately almost impossible to document," laments Patrick Donabédian, an art historian and Armenian expert who will soon join a program to preserve the heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh led by the Armenian government. According to Donabédian, Azerbaijan's goal is "to deprive Armenians of any rights over these territories, asserting that their presence dates back only to the 19th century."


Traces of Armenian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh date back to the 1st century BCE. Like the rest of Armenia, this territory was evangelized in the 3rd and 4th centuries by Saint Gregory the Illuminator. His grandson Grigoris, bishop of Caucasian Albania (part of the current territory of Nagorno-Karabakh), is buried at the Amaras Monastery. This monastic complex housed Armenia's first school, founded by Mesrop Mashtots, who invented the Armenian alphabet in 405. For Professor Donabédian, while "the Christian heritage of Karabakh is in danger," it is not "because it is Christian, but because it attests to Armenian presence." "We are not facing a religious war, but an ethnocide," he says.



For Father Garegin Hambardzumyan, former head of the heritage preservation department of Nagorno-Karabakh at Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the threat to this heritage should concern every Christian: "The monasteries of Gandzasar or Dadivank, built in the 13th century, are not just spiritual and cultural centers of the Armenian people but the home of every Christian. Satellite monitoring is not enough. We need physical access to our monuments so that experts can monitor them – because the attack on Armenian monuments shows that Azerbaijan will not stop there, despite its rhetoric of peace."


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Exodus of 120,000 inhabitants from Nagorno-Karabakh

July 5, 1921. Joseph Stalin decides to attach Armenian Karabakh and Nakhichevan to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.


1991. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan declare independence. Karabakh Armenians wish to be annexed to Armenia, leading to a three-year conflict resulting in 30,000 deaths.


September 27, 2020. Azerbaijan attacks the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. After 44 days of fighting and over 6,500 casualties, the conflict ends on November 9, 2020.


September 19, 2023. Last Azerbaijani attack. After a day of combat, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities surrender. Exodus of its 120,000 inhabitants.


https://international.la-croix.com/world/armenians-in-nagorno-karabakh-fear-their-religious-heritage-is-in-peril


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April 25 2024














Why isn’t anyone talking about the exodus of Christians in Nagorno-Karabakh?













The Weekly Dispatch takes a deep dive into breaking events and issues of significance around our world and our nation today, providing the background readers need to make better sense of the headlines speeding past us each week. For more news and analysis from around the world, visit Dispatches.


After the Holocaust, world leaders agreed, “Never again.” After Rwanda, they said, “Never again.” But when an ancient Christian community was driven out of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan last year, the world’s great powers did little more than issue press releases.


In September 2023, a State Department official said the United States “would not tolerate” ethnic cleansing and other atrocities in Nagorno-Karabakh. In October the European Union passed resolutions deploring the Azerbaijani attacks and impending ethnic cleansing and joined the U.S. and other states in demanding that the right of return for Armenian citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh be respected. All have been futile admonishments of Azerbaijani power.


A nine-month blockade that began in December 2022 had prevented food, medicine and other resources from reaching the besieged community, and as the Azerbaijani army encircled the remnant Armenian forces in the self-described Republic of Artsakh, no power deemed it their responsibility to protect the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh. Though Azerbaijani forces never ordered an evacuation, the Armenian population, based on painful past experience, knew it would not be safe for them to remain after the surrender of the Artsakh and Armenian resistance.


“We are waiting for fuel. As soon as we can find it, we will [leave] immediately,” Arev Danielyan told an official from Caritas Armenia last September. “I have three children, and it is impossible to stay with the Azerbaijanis.” She told the official this would be the third and last time she would be displaced because of the conflict. She knew there would be no going back this time.


“The worst thing is to take a deep breath before saying goodbye,” she said.


A sorrowful caravan of more than 100,000 Armenians in cars, vans and horse carts trailed out of the enclave. Over the course of a few days in September last year, the desperate exodus put an end to an Armenian and Christian presence in the mountainous region that had been constant for more than 2,000 years.


It was not too long ago that the global community accepted a “responsibility to protect” in international affairs, the obligation to step in to prevent crimes against humanity even if it meant intervening in the internal affairs of a sovereign state. The responsibility to protect provided the justification for NATO’s decision to interrupt the bloodletting in Kosovo in 1999. It was also the rationale used for a multinational air campaign over Libya during the fall of Qaddafi in 2011. Unfortunately, that multinational misadventure has apparently soured world powers on the idea of a responsibility to protect.


The local great-ish power that had pledged to protect the enclave’s Armenians, the Russian Federation, failed miserably, distracted by its own illegal escapade in Ukraine and perhaps prioritizing a transit site for its oil and gas exports through Azerbaijan over its treaty commitments to defend Armenia.


Armenian Caritas reports that essentially the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the end, has fled the enclave. Perhaps 20 Armenians, too elderly or too disabled to leave, remain. The vast majority of the enclave’s refugees are settling across Armenia, seeking work and suitable housing.


According to Caritas, they are at risk of “multidimensional poverty” because of the many needs they are facing. At heightened risk are “single women, female-headed households, children (including unaccompanied and separated), [and] persons with chronic health conditions and disabilities.”


The displaced are expected to integrate with Armenian society as they work toward self-reliance. The short-term policy, according to Armenuhi Mkhoyan, a spokesperson for Armenian Caritas, is to help with housing, education and employment. Left unanswered is “the question of the long-term future for these people.”


Most of the refugees, Ms. Mkhoyan said, hope someday, somehow to return to Nagorno-Karabakh.


“But not living together with Azerbaijanis,” she added in an email to America. “They consider it impossible to live side by side. History shows that there is no guarantee of living peacefully on the same land.”


Ms. Mkhoyan reports that for the refugees in Armenia, four issues remain top of mind: “The social and humanitarian problems of the displaced, work towards return, fate of prisoners and their release, [and the] preservation of cultural and historical sites of Nagorno-Karabakh.”


After the Armenian flight, Azerbaijani families, many returning to homes they had been driven from themselves at the conclusion of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War, began taking over the farms, villages, cities and homes the Armenians left behind. And despite an order from the International Court of Justice at the Hague to protect Armenian heritage, reports continue to emerge of the destruction of Armenian churches, cemeteries and other cultural sites. With the region denuded of the Armenian people themselves, it is the memory of them now that is slowly being washed away in Nagorno-Karabakh.


Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, April 24, is observed all over the world by the members of the Armenian diaspora, commemorating the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915. That catastrophe was an exercise in homicide, starvation and inhumanity denied to this day by many in Turkey—especially denied by its current authoritarian leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. President Erdogan marked the occasion this week with a message to Armenian Patriarch Sahak Masalyan, deploring “radical discourse” on the issue of Armenian remembrance.


“I once again remember with respect the Ottoman citizens of Armenian descent who lost their lives due to unfavorable circumstances of World War I and extend my condolences to their descendants.” Mr. Erdogan wrote. “I also wish Allah Almighty’s mercy to all members of the Ottoman society who passed away or were martyred as a consequence of armed conflicts, rebellions, gang violence and terrorist acts.”


His downplaying of the historical grievances of Armenians had taken an even starker tone just a few days before. Azerbaijan and Armenia have been pursuing negotiations meant to normalize relations and fix borders in the aftermath of two wars. Mr. Erdogan was asked by reporters if Armenia might be included in wider peacebuilding efforts across the restive Caucasus region.


He agreed that “a new order is being established in the region,” but added, “t is time to set aside baseless claims. It is time to move forward with realities on the ground. It is better than moving forward with fabrications, tales.”


“Now, it is time to create a new road map based on reality,” the Turkish leader said. “I hope Armenia escapes from the darkness it was condemned to thanks to its diaspora and chooses the path to new beginnings,” Mr. Erdogan said. “The door to opportunity will not remain open forever.”


A pan-Turkic vision


Mr. Erdogan had played a major role in facilitating Azerbaijan’s oil-fueled military buildup following its humiliation at the end of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War. Azerbaijan’s military superiority was quickly evident in 2020 over 44 days of combat as it put its high-tech drone and missile capacity to devastating effect against the completely outgunned and outmaneuvered Armenian forces.


The Azerbaijani lightning assault that provoked the collapse of all Armenian defensive forces in one day in September 2023 further demonstrated Azerbaijan’s mastery of a new form of drone-assisted, hybrid warfare. Substantial military buys from Turkey and Israel helped.


Azerbaijani leader President Ilham Aliyev, another authoritarian responsible for a host of human rights abuses in Azerbaijan, likewise shared some disquieting thoughts about Armenia on Genocide Remembrance Day. The president was addressing a U.N.-connected audience in Baku at a preliminary meeting to COP29, an international conference on climate change that is to be hosted in November by oil-flush Azerbaijan. He was asked about outsider efforts to influence events in the South Caucasus region after Russia’s apparent diplomatic and military withdrawal.


Mr. Aliyev heartily mocked European observers policing the peace and what he dismissed as “binocular diplomacy.” He suggested that the Europeans would be on the run at the first sign of renewed fighting and deplored recent efforts by France and other European partners to rearm and modernize Armenia’s military, assuring that Armenia would regret it if it put modern defenses in place against the Azerbaijani army.


“The way to security and stability in the region goes through Azerbaijan-Armenia normalization,” Mr. Aliyev said. Armenia must learn “to be a normal neighbor and to put an end to territorial claims to their neighbors. We see some positive trends. But this is not enough. It is only words, and we know how they can change their mind.”


He suggested that Azerbaijan would not stand by while Armenia restores its defensive capacity.


Now the Armenians appear willing to accept the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh, but, Mr. Aliyev said, “maybe in five years’ time, when they are supplied with deadly weapons, they will say again, ‘Karabakh is Armenia,’ and what should we do? We cannot wait.”


Though the two sides are engaged in peace negotiations that in the end may formalize the de facto ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr. Aliyev sounded far from peaceful. But accepting the status quo is apparently the best Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who led the country during both its disastrous war in 2020 and the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023, believes he can achieve.


He may consider it worth the sacrifice of Nagorno-Karabakh if that means Mr. Aliyev will cease loudly talking about his long-standing desire to create a land bridge to an Azerbaijani exclave province, Nakhchivan, and thus to Turkey. To make that pan-Turkic vision a reality, the Azerbaijanis would have to seize Syunik Province in southern Armenia. There is little now to stop them if they decide to proceed.


And even as Armenian and Azerbaijani negotiators seek to hammer out a comprehensive peace, Armenia is pressing a case at the International Court of Justice that Azerbaijan be held accountable for war crimes and ethnic cleansing. It is a complicated political reality and behind that a vexing practical problem—how to address restitution or restoration in Nagorno-Karabakh, then how to prevent an even wider regional conflict.


There is little evidence that the Biden administration is prepared to engage that problem, at least based on its tepid, pro-forma acknowledgment of Armenian Remembrance Day this week.


“Today, we pause to remember the lives lost during the Meds Yeghern—the Armenian genocide—and renew our pledge to never forget,” President Biden said. He recalled a “campaign of cruelty” in 1915, when the Ottoman empire turned on its Armenian citizens, but Mr. Biden said nothing in his brief statement about any of the region’s contemporary cruelties.


“As we mourn this tragedy, we also honor the resilience of the Armenian people,” Mr. Biden said. “After enduring one of the darkest chapters in human history…they rebuilt their lives. They preserved their culture…. And they told their stories to ensure that the mass atrocities that began on this day 109 years ago are never again repeated.”


“This remains our solemn vow,” the president concluded. “Today—and every day—the United States will continue to stand up for human rights and speak out against intolerance. We will continue to meet hate and horror with hope and healing. And, we will continue to stand with all those who seek a future where everyone can live with dignity, security, and respect.”


It is hard to say how Mr. Biden’s words were heard in Armenia, where an embattled, ancient Christian community stands alone among neighbors who increasingly demonstrate an unwillingness to tolerate its presence.


https://www.americamagazine.org/politics-society/2024/04/25/armenia-remembrance-genocide-azerbaijan-russia-nagorno-karabakh-ethnic


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Vatican News

April 26 2024




News from the Orient – April 26, 2024
Each week we offer news from the Eastern Churches, in collaboration with L'Œuvre d'Orient.



This week’s News from the Orient:



Destruction of Armenian Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

The destruction of Armenian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh continues. Satellite images from April 4 show the total destruction of St. John the Baptist Church, known as Kanatch Jam of Shushi.


In March, images revealed the destruction of the parliament building in Stepanakert.


Last September, Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh fled the region en masse as it was invaded by Azerbaijan’s army. Today, they fear a comprehensive policy that could erase all Armenian presence from an area they have inhabited for 3,000 years.



109th anniversary of Armenian Genocide

Thousands marched on April 24 through the streets of the Armenian capital, Yerevan, to commemorate the 109th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.


Some carried torches and other flowers, recalling the 1.5 million Armenians murdered in the Ottoman Empire. Commemorations continued the next day near the genocide memorial.


Several hundred thousand Assyrian-Chaldeans were also killed, a community present at the commemoration.


https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2024-04/news-from-the-orient-nagorno-karabakh-armenian-genocide-iraq.html



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May 2 2024




Armenia, Azerbaijan Engage in Legal Battles over Artsakh Conflict at U.N. Court




5/2/2024 Armenia/Azerbaijan (International Christian Concern) — Delegates of Armenia and Azerbaijan are engaged in legal battles over the Artsakh conflict, arguing before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the Hague.


The litigation dates back to September 2021, when Armenia filed a suit accusing Azerbaijan of violating the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1965. Less than one week later, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of similar violations under the ICERD.


At the time, Armenia argued that Azerbaijan had “captured, tortured, and arbitrarily detained numerous members of Armenian armed forces and civilians” and “destroy[ed] Armenian cultural heritage and religious sites or negate the Armenian character.” Azerbaijan claimed that it had released most prisoners and that the detainees remaining were convicted or being prosecuted for murder or espionage charges. Less than one week later, Azerbaijan accused Armenia of similar violations under the ICERD.


In April 2024, Azerbaijan argued that the court did not have jurisdiction in Armenia’s case because the two countries had not first engaged in serious negotiations to settle their disputes. The Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elnur Mammadov alleged that “Armenia had its sights firmly set on commencing these proceedings before the court and using the effect of these proceedings to wage a public media campaign against Azerbaijan.”


In the case brought by Azerbaijan, Armenia also denied that the court had jurisdiction. An Armenian delegate, Yeghishe Kirakosyan, argued, “Azerbaijan cannot be allowed to sit on its alleged grievances under CERD for nearly 30 years, only to finally pursue them after many witnesses are long gone and the evidence has disappeared.”


The ICJ had previously ordered both Armenia and Azerbaijan to deescalate tensions, ordering the latter in February 2023 to “take all steps at its disposal” to ensure transit along the Lachin Corridor when Azerbaijani protestors had blocked the only road connecting Armenia to Artsakh, a breakaway enclave internationally recognized as a part of Azerbaijan but populated by ethnic Armenians.


Despite the court order, the partial blockade by the protestors became a complete siege by Azerbaijani security forces within a few months in a prelude to the eventual invasion and conquest of Artsakh in September 2023.


Before the invasion, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenian Christians lived in Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh.


https://www.persecution.org/2024/05/02/armenia-azerbaijan-engage-in-legal-battles-over-artsakh-conflict-at-u-n-court/


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May 13 2024
The Fall of Artsakh and the Ancient Roots of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict

5/13/2024 Armenia (International Christian Concern) — International Christian Concern (ICC) has been closely following the refugee crisis following Azerbaijan’s takeover of Artsakh and working alongside displaced families to assist them. A recent brief released by ICC dives further into the analysis of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Artsakh considering the history of conflict between Christendom and Islam.

To read the report, click here.

The first section of this report studies the national and religious identity of Armenia and Azerbaijan, and its implications for understanding the present. The second section provides a timeline of the conflict from the origins in the early 20th century to the fall of Artsakh in 2023. The report concludes with an assessment of the current situation in the context of centuries of Islamic persecution and dispossession of Armenian Christians. Knowing the sources of religious conflict rooted in national and religious identity and understanding the nature of persecution throughout history is necessary to respond effectively today.

Armenians from Artsakh lost their heritage and homeland despite a courageous stand for liberty that lasted more than three decades. It is a story of betrayal, for neither the empty promises of the international community nor the compromises of the Armenian government prevented the Azerbaijani siege and conquest of Artsakh. Nothing changed one century after the Armenian Genocide. It is now left to the survivors in Armenia to preserve their lost heritage and homeland in their memory. Many in the West have ignored the plight of Armenian Christians. It is the duty of Christians in every nation to honor the fall of Artsakh.

https://www.persecution.org/2024/05/13/the-fall-of-artsakh-and-the-ancient-roots-of-the-armenia-azerbaijan-conflict/

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Armenpress.am
The Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh is gradually being destroyed – Geghard SAF
1136926.jpg 13:49, 13 May 2024

YEREVAN, MAY 13, ARMENPRESS. The destruction of St. Ascension (St. Hambardzum) Church in Berdzor is yet another act of vandalism by Azerbaijan, aimed at the eradication of Armenian cultural heritage, “Geghard” scientific and analytical foundation said in a statement.

“On May 11, 2024, a satellite image published on the Internet clearly showed that Azerbaijan had completely destroyed the St. Ascension (St. Hambardzum) Church in Berdzor. This is another act of vandalism - a typical behaviour for Azerbaijan, where one of the primary aims is the eradication of Armenian cultural heritage in the occupied territories.

“This is cultural genocide, which is characterized by deliberate disregard or destruction of the cultural values of an ethno-religious or religious group and is one of the actions associated with genocide. The objective is to establish that this group never lived in the designated area and had no cultural presence there,” the Foundation said.

“Geghard” scientific and analytical foundation reminds that back in 2022, Azerbaijan's "Public Organization for the Protection of Monuments" propоsed converting the Surb Hambardzum Church in Berdzor into a mosque.

“It is important to note that Azerbaijan's state policy, under the dictatorial leadership of Aliyev, has openly declared its intention to continue the destruction of Armenian heritage built over the past thirty years. The most evident instance of this was the photograph shown by BBC News on March 25, 2021, depicting the complete destruction of the St. Astvatsatsin Church in Mekhakavan, built in 2013. (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-56530604).

“Thus, with the tacit consent of the civilized world, the Armenian cultural heritage in the territory of Artsakh is gradually being destroyed. There is little doubt that Azerbaijan will complete its planned cultural genocide, as evidenced by the events in Nakhijevan and other territories under its control.

"Geghard" Scientific and Analytical Foundation strongly condemns yet another act of vandalism by the state of Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1136926.html?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3qfOROQy5Fm2OqjyOAT14sFlvDNNrh4iVcnn-gFSWir1jkpKQNeYCXwBI_aem_AVhc0Di4_qFN5fg5ZSzn7qxV2ukPIK-mbPCjC84oP6WtLCdT-TiNQ9P2S-C5969hkig6IjZflqLplm2T3KqciQCx

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We build, they destroy. :(

Panorama, Armenia
May 17 2024
f6647100b1af69_6647100b1afad.thumb.jpg
POLITICS 12:06 17/05/2024 NKR
Church in Artsakh's Aghavno at risk of destruction

The Holy Martyrs (Srbots Nahatakats) Church of Aghavno, a village in the Kashatagh region of Azerbaijani-occupied Artsakh, is at risk of destruction, the Artsakh Monument Watch warns.

The construction of the church was completed in 2002

The warning came after Azerbaijan completely destroyed the Holy Ascension Church in the town of Berdzor.

“The monitoring of the Azerbaijani social media planforms reveals that the church is completely under decks and covers just like Berdzor’s Holy Ascension Church and is vulnerable to the same fate,” the watchdog said in a statement on Thursday.

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https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2024/05/17/church-Aghavno/3003694

 

 

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Asbarez.com

 

Satellite Images Show Extensive and Ongoing Destruction of Artsakh Sites, Watchdog Group Reports

 
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Caucasus Heritage Watch’s Latest Report on Armenian Cultural Sites Targeted By the Azerbaijani Regime Found a 75 Percent Increase in Destroyed Sites Since Fall 2023.

The Caucasus Heritage Watch released Monitoring Report #7 on cultural heritage at risk in Nagorno-Karabakh. The latest monitoring cycle has revealed the greatest number of impacted Armenian cultural sites since CHW began monitoring in 2021: six newly destroyed sites and seven facing critical threats to their survival.

After the ethnic cleansing in Artsakh in September 2023, the Caucasus Heritage watch added over 180 sites into their monitoring routine. Since CHW began, they have assessed 57 sites as destroyed, damaged, or threatened.

CumulativeImpactsGraph-1920x679-1.png

Included in the latest report was the demolition of Kanach Zham church (Armenian for “Green Chapel”) as well as the completed destruction of the Ghazanchetsots cemetery in Shushi after CHW data yielded evidence of earlier damages to both cultural sites. At the base of the hill Shushi was built on, a village called Karintak was completely leveled between last fall and April of this year, likely to make way for a new Azerbaijani residential settlement.

CHW’s report specifically highlights the destruction of two Soviet-era schools in Tsar and Chragh whose structures were inlaid with architectural fragments featuring Armenian art and inscriptions from other buildings. The demolition of 9th- and 13th-century khachkars (carved Armenian cross-stones) from a long-ruined church at the Kohak sacred place near Chartar and the destruction of the 19th- to 20th-century Ghuze T’agh Cemetery near Aknaghbyur are also discussed.

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Additionally, the group added five churches and two cemeteries to the list of threatened locations, bringing the figure from 24 sites in December 2023 to 31 as of June 2024. CHW attributed the elevated risks to the seven additional sites to recognizable construction or demolition activity around the area, or because they possess unmistakably Armenian features such as inscriptions. 

CHW, a research initiative led by archaeologists at Cornell and Purdue Universities, has added 181 Armenian heritage sites to its watchlist in the last year. That list now includes 489 locations across Artsakh. 

“Preparations for COP29 may have a grave impact on Karabakh’s Armenian cultural heritage. Massive infrastructure and redevelopment projects are threatening, damaging, or destroying cultural sites in the path of omnipresent earth movers,” CHW says.

 

 

https://asbarez.com/satellite-images-show-extensive-and-ongoing-destruction-of-artsakh-sites-watchdog-group-reports/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2hlCgvDJU6Ip2roJEkVnp9BsSEPyCtBYepFQ2Wdwx9tPLSOW66VRW24AU_aem_zIjq74JLmKtJlPbKizBw-Q

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Mediamax, Armenia
July 1 2024


Summary of “Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?” published

Yerevan /Mediamax/. Summary of the special report “Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?” has been published.


The report documents how ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh were intentionally subjected to regular attacks, intimidation, deprivation of basic rights and adequate living conditions, and forced displacement by the Azerbaijani state.

The report was jointly prepared by Freedom House, International Partnership for Human Rights, Democracy Development Foundation, Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly - Vanadzor, Protection of Rights without Borders NGO, Law Development and Protections Foundation, and Truth Hounds.

The gathered evidence demonstrates that the Azerbaijani state acted upon a comprehensive, methodically implemented strategy to empty Nagorno-Karabakh of its ethnic Armenian population and historical and cultural presence.

During in-depth interviews with more than 330 victims, gross violations of human rights, breaches of international humanitarian law and international criminal law norms by the Azerbaijani officials were recorded.

The fact-finding mission has determined that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that these practices by Azerbaijani authorities constitute crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, including Article 7 (crimes against humanity), and Article 8 (war crimes), and align with the definition of deportation or forcible transfer of population. Besides, the documented actions of Azerbaijan meet the criteria for ethnic cleansing as understood in the context of the former Yugoslavia conflict.


The full report will be available in September 2024.

Summary of “Why Are There No Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh?” published - Mediamax.am
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July 11 2024
 
 

Stop the destruction of monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh


 

OPINION. As Azerbaijan has gained control over the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region and no Armenians are left in Nagorno-Karabakh, thousands of Armenian historical and cultural monuments are at risk of being destroyed. If this happens, it will be a loss for the whole humanity, writes Anzhela Mnatsakanyan, political researcher and Coordinator for A Demand for Action in Armenia.

The opinions expressed in this article are those by the author.

Armenia, a small landlocked country nestled between powerful neighbours, lacks natural resources, access to the sea, and boasts a population of barely 3 million people. Despite these geographical and demographic limitations, Armenia stands as a rich fabric of history and culture, representing one of the world’s oldest civilizations. It holds the honor of being the first nation to embrace Christianity as a state religion. Exploring Armenian history often reveals a profound parallel: just as Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the sins of humanity, Armenia, as the first Christian nation, has seemingly borne a comparable burden for the faults of the Christian world.

In 1915, 1.5 million Armenians, 500,000 Assyrians/Chaldeans/Syriacs, and approximately 350,000 Greeks endured genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, which is now modern-day Turkey. These tragic events marked some of the darkest chapters in human history, shaping the fates of entire communities and leaving lasting scars on the regions they once called home. The residual genetic trauma from this tragedy has been passed down through generations of survivors and their descendants. In 2023, 105 years after the Armenian Genocide, history tragically repeated itself in Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh—an integral part of historic Armenia with rich Armenian cultural and religious heritage, but which was handed to Azerbaijan during the Soviet era by Stalin’s decision made in a single night. After enduring a nine-month blockade by Azerbaijan, Armenians of Artsakh were forcefully displaced from their ancestral homeland.

In 2020, Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, launched a war against Nagorno-Karabakh. After 44 days of intense fighting, Azerbaijan gained control over 70 percent of the territory. Throughout the conflict, Azerbaijan openly violated the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property during Armed Conflict, despite being its State Party, by deliberately targeting cultural sites. On October 8, 2020, Azerbaijani forces launched precision rocket attacks on Nagorno-Karabakh’s ”white pearl,” the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in the city of Shushi. This assault, carried out with double trap bombing tactics, resulted in serious injuries to journalists covering the initial bombing and inflicted significant damage on the Cathedral. Numerous videos released by Azerbaijani soldiers depict desecration, vandalism, and graffiti on its walls, with one angel statue severely damaged. President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan subsequently barred UNESCO access and controversially announced the Cathedral’s ”restoration” without consulting Armenian experts or UNESCO. During this process, the entire dome was removed, and the cross was taken down from the Cathedral of the first Christian nation—an act viewed as deeply disgraceful. This incident was not isolated; numerous churches suffered vandalism by Azerbaijani soldiers who, feeling immune, documented their desecrations on smartphones and shared them on social media.

Heritage under threat

Now that Azerbaijan has gained control over the entire Nagorno-Karabakh region and no Armenians are left in Nagorno-Karabakh, the region’s entire cultural heritage is under threat. Despite calls from U.S. member states and orders by the International Court of Justice to respect cultural heritage and condemns of the European Parliament, Azerbaijan has not complied with these mandates. Some churches, which are jewels of Armenian and Christian cultural heritage, no longer exist. For instance, the Church of Saint John the Baptist, built in 1847 – a unique and personally cherished site for many –has been destroyed. Saint Zoravor Astvatsatsin Church in Mekhakavan has suffered a similar fate, having been entirelydemolished. Subsequently, the churches of Saint Sargis Church in Mokhrenes and Saint Ascension Church in Berdzo met similar ends. Shockingly, all these churches were intact when Azerbaijan assumed control of the territory. 

It is crucial to note that the destruction is not limited to churches alone but extends to cemeteries, schools, sacred spaces, entire villages, and thousands of khachkars—Armenian carved cross-stones, each a unique piece of medieval Christian Armenian art. Many of these intricately carved khachkars have already been destroyed or damaged, and many of them were dating from the 9th to 13th centuries. It is also important to remember that Azerbaijan, under President Aliyev’s direct supervision, has systematically erased over 25,000 pieces of Armenian Christian cultural heritage in Nakhijevan. This includes the destruction of the world’s largest and oldest Armenian cemetery in Julfa, which originally housed around 10,000 funerary monuments consisting mainly of khachkars.

Azerbaijan has adopted a policy not only of outright destruction but also of ”Albanization” of Armenian religious sites and cultural heritage in the territories under its control. Azerbaijani government officials have launched a widespread campaign to assert that Armenian heritage sites either do not exist or belong to ”Caucasian Albanian” culture, despite lacking support from international research. The vast majority of experts in the region’s art, architecture, and archaeology have refuted Azerbaijan’s revisionist claims as unfounded. Nevertheless, the promotion of Caucasian Albanian narratives has spurred efforts to remove Armenian imagery and inscriptions from buildings and monuments through iconoclastic acts, aiming to eliminate traces of Armenian presence from their historical homeland.

Right now, thousands of Armenian historical and cultural monuments remain in the territories under Azerbaijani occupation. These treasures date back to ancient times, with many archeological sites from times before Christ. Imagine the loss to humanity if they keep being destroyed. 

Anzhela Mnatsakanyan
Ph.D. in Political Science, serves as a Coordinator for A Demand for Action (ADFA). She is an accomplished political researcher and author of numerous academic papers and research articles, specializing in Eastern Partnerships, Russia, and the EU.

https://globalbar.se/2024/07/stop-the-destruction-of-monuments-in-nagorno-karabakh/

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panorama
Armenia - Aug 3 2024
 
 

Azerbaijan destroys village in Artsakh

 

Satellite images show that Azerbaijan has destroyed the village of Mokhrenes in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), the Monument Watch reports.

The village in the Hadrut region fell under Azerbaijani control during the 44-day war in 2020.

The Google stellate imagery indicates that most of the village houses, the local school, kindergarten and other facilities have been pulled down.

The Monument Watch recalls that Azerbaijan completely destroyed St. Sargis Church in Mokhrenes back in 2022.

852a18b5-7631-4d5f-a3ef-91e8fc652d0a(2).

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