Statue of a Dictator (Aliyev Clan)

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Asbarez.com

 

Influential Australian Church Condemns Azeri Destruction of Christian Sites In Artsakh

May 19, 2021

http://asbarez.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/uniting-ghazan.png

The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi before (left), and after Azerbaijani occupation of the city

SYDNEY—The Uniting Church in Australia, which is the third-largest Christian denomination in the country, condemned acts by the Azerbaijani dictatorship to “to destroy places of religious significance” in light of evidence the regime of Ilham Aliyev is desecrating indigenous Armenian places of worship following their illegal occupation of the Republic of Artsakh, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia.

The Uniting Church in Australia was asked by the ANC-AU to respond to the appropriation of the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Holy Savior as images emerged of the sacred site being removed of its domes, angels and Armenian inscriptions under the cover of “restorations” by Baku, and their Assembly has condemned these acts in the strongest of terms.

Their statement “condemns any acts that deliberately seek to destroy places of religious significance for other communities,” “acknowledges that reports coming out of Artsakh are concerning and especially distressing for people in Australia whose cultural and religious heritage is connected to this region,” and “acknowledges that Armenian members of our Uniting Church have expressed to us their anguish at hearing reports and seeing images that are emerging from the region showing the destruction and damage of Armenian cultural and religious structures including churches.”

The statement specifically acknowledges that “one of the major sites impacted, the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, which was visited by a group of UCA leaders in a visit in 2019,” referring to a visit coordinated by Reverend Krikor Yomshajekian.

Furthermore, the Uniting Church in Australia’s call for international action to “take all possible and appropriate measures to protect the sites” echoes the call by the Bishops of the Australian Catholic Church earlier this week.

ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian thanked Rev. Yomshajekian and the Uniting Church in Australia for their principles stance.

“The Uniting Church in Australia’s call for a stop to the desecration of Ghazanchetsots and other religious sites in the indigenous Armenian Republic of Artsakh means two of the largest Christian denominations in this country have spoken for action by the Federal Government and UNESCO against Azerbaijan’s criminal occupation and destruction of Nagorno Karabakh’s cultural heritage,” said Kayserian. “We thank Rev. Krikor Yomshajekian for his leadership and the Uniting Church in Australia for their principled condemnation.”

This month, the Armenian National Committee of Australia wrote to prominent religious bodies throughout Australia, requesting their support in response to the destruction of Armenian churches.

http://asbarez.com/202592/influential-australian-church-condemns-azeri-destruction-of-christian-sites-in-artsakh/?fbclid=IwAR04pxfOBf8luHJiICl2DpaCCSINQMPV5o9cblLRnLIWHjN9fOLXFfh2t-0

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Public Radio of Armenia

May 20 2021

Ecumenical Council of 16 Australian churches calls on UNESCO to act against Azerbaijani desecration of Armenian churches in Artsakh

Ecumenical Council of 16 Australian churches calls on UNESCO to act against Azerbaijani desecration of Armenian churches in Artsakh – Public Radio of Armenia

The New South Wales Ecumenical Council has joined in growing calls on the international community to condemn the systematic desecration of ancient religious and cultural sites in the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) by occupying Azerbaijan, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).

The NSW Ecumenical Council expresses the views of 16 highly influential churches in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, including the Anglican Church, Antiochian Orthodox Church, Armenian Apostolic Church, Assyrian Church of the East, The Bruderhof, Congregational Federation of NSW, Coptic Orthodox Church, Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahdo Church, Greek Orthodox Church, Indian Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church of NSW, Mar Thoma Church, Religious Society of Friends, Syrian Orthodox Church, The Salvation Army and Uniting Church Synod of NSW and ACT.

President of the NSW Ecumenical Council, Dr. Ray Williamson was asked by the ANC-AU to respond to the appropriation of the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of Holy Saviour as images emerged of the sacred site being removed of its domes, angels and Armenian inscriptions under the cover of “restorations” by Baku.

In his correspondence to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), President of the NSW Ecumenical Council Dr. Ray Williamson strongly urged the organisation to speak out and condemn Azerbaijan’s systematic desecration of ancient Armenian cultural and religious sites.

“The NSW Ecumenical Council unequivocally condemns the disturbing images that have been circulated online, which indicates that the Azerbaijani Government has begun dismantling Armenian Christian features of the sacred Ghazanchetsots Cathedral of the Holy Saviour, located in the region of Shushi,” Dr. Williamson wrote.

ANC-AU Executive Director, Haig Kayserian welcomed the statement from one of the largest and most influential Christian bodies in the country.

“We thank the New South Wales Ecumenical council for standing with the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh and against Azerbaijan’s systematic desecration of ancient Armenian cultural and religious sites,” said Kayserian.

The NSW Ecumenical Council joins several Christian organisations in Australia in condemning the actions of the Azerbaijani army by calling for an immediate end to the destruction of the religious heritage in the Armenian territories they are illegally occupying. These organisations include the Uniting Church in Australia and the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

In May 2021, the Armenian National Committee of Australia wrote to prominent religious bodies throughout Australia, requesting their support in response to the destruction of Armenian churches.

https://en.armradio.am/2021/05/20/ecumenical-council-of-16-australian-churches-calls-on-unesco-to-act-against-azerbaijani-desecration-of-armenian-churches-in-artsakh/

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Armenpress.com

Monument Watch: Academics join forces to save Armenian heritage in Artsakh from Azeri destruction

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10:16, 25 May, 2021

YEREVAN, MAY 25, ARMENPRESS. Historian and archaeologist Hamlet Petrosyan (Yerevan State University) and Anna Leyloyan-Yekmalyan (State Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations, INALCO, Paris) have brought together archaeologists, architects, cultural anthropologists and many other experts to launch Monument Watch – a project dedicated to the preservation of Armenian cultural heritage in the parts of Artsakh which was captured by the Azerbaijani military during the course of the 2020 war, given the Azeri state-sanctioned destruction or distortion of the Armenian monuments documented on several occasions.

Both during and after the 2020 war, the Azeri authorities have deliberately targeted Armenian cultural and spiritual monuments. For example, the iconic Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in the city of Shushi was bombed twice during the war, and now many months since the fighting ended and the Azeris took control over the city, they started distorting the cathedral in what the Armenian foreign ministry described as “manifestations of vandalism, aimed at depriving the Shushi Mother Cathedral of its Armenian identity.”

The Armenian Church in Mekhakavan was also targeted, with Azeri authorities completely demolishing it – a fact proven by a BBC investigation.

Since the specialists at Monument Watch don’t have the opportunity to inspect the monuments in-person, they will conduct the monitoring online on various platforms. “It is clear that [our monuments] will either be demolished or distorted. The destruction of Armenian monuments is part of Azerbaijan’s government policy. They are trying to appropriate Armenian heritage also,” Anna Leyloyan-Yekmalyan told ARMENPRESS.

The official website of Monument Watch lists the following goals: to map and inventorize (the condition before the war) the immovable cultural heritage, museums, cultural centers of Artsakh-Azerbaijani border zone and of those territories of the Artsakh Republic, which as a result of the 44 day war passed under the control of Azerbaijan; to ratificate the current state (destruction, alteration, reuse, deletion and modification of sculptures, images, inscriptions, use of new symbols, etc.), as well as; to introduce the changes to the international scientific and cultural community.

Leyloyan-Yekmalyan says there are more than 4000 monuments in Artsakh, and more than 1700 are now in danger.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1053269.html?fbclid=IwAR07hi4NbVkOdYPh6rMsQoYbNZzYb82LDpFGJhSlm2ZT0hTeDvrGwLO4UsQ

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The Jerusalem Post

May 25 2021

Azerbaijani Pres. Aliyev talks Israel, says Baku has full access to weapons

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

MAY 25, 2021 07:49

The conversation also turned to the ongoing conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, in which Israel has expressed support for the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in a discussion with The Nizami Ganjavi International Center on Thursday that his country has full access to sophisticated Israeli weaponry when commenting on the strong ties between Israel and Azerbaijan, as highlighted in a press release.

The discussion, which featured a number of former presidents, prime ministers, high-ranking officials, prominent political figures, diplomats and political scientists, was based on the theme of “The South Caucasus: Regional Development and Prospective for Cooperation.”

When asked by former Director of the Anti-Defamation League Abraham Foxman about the status of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations amid fighting between the IDF and terrorist organizations in Gaza, President Aliyev said that relations are strong and that cooperation between the two countries is growing in a number of areas.

“Answering the question about our relations with Israel, I want to say that our relations are very diverse. We are active trading partners, and the volume of our trade is increasing ... One of the important areas of our cooperation is the defense industry. This collaboration has been going on for many years. It is no secret that Azerbaijan has full access to Israeli defense industry products. Right now, we are already at the stage of new progress in this area," President Aliyev said.

President Aliyev also noted that tourism between the two countries is increasing, leading to daily flights and mutual trips being carried out by citizens of both countries. The Azerbaijani President further noted the importance of the country's Jewish community in building Azerbaijan-Israel ties, their comfort and acceptance in Azerbaijani society and the support communal institutions receive from the state.

“Another promising area of our interaction is agriculture. As you know, Israel has managed to create the world's developed agricultural industry in extremely difficult climatic conditions. This is a very good example for us, and we can use this technology both in the liberated territories and in the country as a whole,” President Aliyev said.

The conversation also turned to the ongoing conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, in which Israel has expressed support for the the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

https://m.jpost.com/middle-east/azerbaijani-pres-aliyev-talks-israel-says-baku-has-full-access-to-weapons-669046/

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May 26 2021

Gandzasar Monastery, seat of the Aghvank Catholicosate of the Armenian Apostolic Church

until the 19th century. Photo Credit: Bursteam, Wikipedia Commons

Conundrum Over Caucasian Albania – OpEd

May 26, 2021May 26, 2021 Farid Shafiyev* 0 Comments

By Farid Shafiyev*

Since the beginning of the modern conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, interest in the history of Caucasian Albania has grown rapidly along with the politicization of the subject matter. Caucasian Albania is an ancient state, termed in historical records Agvank or Aluank, that existed on the territory of the South Caucasus between the third and seventh centuries. According to ancient sources such as Strabo, it was a conglomerate of twenty-six tribes, among them the Udi, a surviving ethnic group of a few thousand people, professing Christianity, that today resides in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Recently, interest in the issue of Caucasian Albania was sparked by the problem of Christian churches on the territory of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, some Western experts have made superficial judgments, particularly decrying the major Azerbaijani theory of Caucasian Albania “bogus” or “pseudoscientific.” Yet, these experts lack any specific knowledge of the history of Caucasian Albania, which requires the mastery of Armenian (Grabar), Arabic and even the now-extinct Albanian language (modern Udi is closest to it); or even lack a PhD degree in history.

Tom de Waal, the author of Black Garden, on the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, opined that, “Nobody believes the Caucasian Albanian theory outside Azerbaijan.” He previously also attacked Azerbaijani academician Ziya Buniyadov, who developed the Azerbaijani theory on Caucasian Albania. Buniyadov was a trailblazer who opened not only a new chapter in the history of Caucasian Albania, but also embarked on the translation of the Quran into the Azerbaijani language and was murdered by Islamic fundamentalists allegedly trained in Iran. Laurence Broers in his book Anatomy of Rivalry, has treated historical data more cautiously but, in the end, jettisoned the Azerbaijani version. The problem with such a description is that only a handful of experts in the West know the history of Caucasian Albania, while the rest mostly recycle or repeat the arguments of scholars from Armenia or of Armenian origin.

For Armenian nationalists, the theory on Caucasian Albania is absolutely unacceptable, as it destroys the edifice built over the last three hundred years about Great Armenia, which, according to them, included Karabakh and other territories in the South Caucasus, overlapping with Caucasian Albania. In the Armenian version, Caucasian Albania was a Christian state that was an offshoot of the Armenian one from both political and religious perspectives. Frequently, Armenian scholars point to Armenian churches as evidence of their historical presence. American scholars Gerard Toal and John Loughlin point out in this regard that

the Armenian Church has a long and complicated geographical footprint across the Middle East, Anatolia and Caucasus… churches, graveyards and religious stones are taken as evidence of original ownership of territories under dispute and the basis for making claims to territories that may not otherwise be under dispute. Such discourses seek to imagine territory as sacred space, sacred not simply for its religious meaning but more broadly as the ancient patrimony of the modern nation.

For Azerbaijani historians (after Ziya Buniyadov, the most prolific writer was his student, Farida Mamedova), Caucasian Albania was a fully independent state that rivaled Armenia. In my view, both theories have been to a certain degree politicized owing to the modern conflict. Azerbaijani historians, often writing on conflict-related matters, indulge in emotive language, which is also present among Armenian scholars, but absent in Western-educated diasporic scholars. This, along with other geopolitical and religious factors, facilitates the Armenian influence on the Western expert community. Moreover, many studies in the West are sponsored by Armenian diaspora groups such as the Tavitian Foundation, which funds a Carnegie Endowment and is known for its anti-Azerbaijani stance. In contrast, on the Azerbaijani side, such research is mostly a state-sponsored activity, which is negatively perceived by Western scholars. In the United States, there are around 22 Armenian studies chairs, but no equivalent for Azerbaijan. Sponsorship by the government of Azerbaijan becomes the subject of ostracism, and a recent example occurred in Germany. The irony is that many of Germany’s own foundations are largely state-sponsored, for example, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, whose Tbilisi Head of Office, Stephan Meister, called for cutting any academic links with Azerbaijan. This anti-Azerbaijani position of many Western scholars can in part be explained by the critical perceptions of current governments, partly influenced by Orientalist (in the Saidian sense), anti-Islamic and Turcophobic sentiments.

Another problem is that the history of Caucasian Albania continues to be studied mostly through Armenian sources, as the Albanian alphabet based texts completely disappeared for many centuries and was only rediscovered relatively recently in Egypt’s Mount Sinai Monastery thanks to Georgian scholar Zaza Alexidze. Indeed, it is quite a strange phenomenon that Albanian religious texts have not survived in the South Caucasus, especially taking into account that, by edict of the Russian Tsar in 1836, the independent Albanian Catholicasate with a center in Gandzasar in Karabakh was abolished and fully subordinated to the Armenian one in Echmiadzin. Therein lies the confluence of history, religion, drama, and conspiracy.

As mentioned, Caucasian Albania ceased to exist as an independent entity in the seventh century and fell under the Arab caliphate. After the Arab conquest, the majority of the Albanian population was converted to Islam. Those who adhered to Christianity gradually synergized with the Armenian church, which tried to completely control the Albanian church and, according to Azerbaijani historians, destroyed many historical documents and forged others in an attempt to erase any traces of an independent Albania. Albanian palimpsests manifest the evidence that religious texts were erased and written over. This is no conspiracy theory; it is a proven fact, and the Albanian palimpsests have been studied by various scholars, including Zaza Alexidze, Jost Gippert and Wolfang Schulze, and Timur Maisak. As Maisak noted:

Worship in Albanian churches was completely passed into the Armenian language, and the use of non-Armenian liturgical books was suppressed. Books in Caucasian Albanian ceased to be copied, and the language itself was forgotten; manuscripts created in the V-VII centuries were destroyed or embroidered, while text on their pages was washed out in order to write on them again in other languages.

Armenian scholar Joseph Orbeli in his research, made in 1909-1919, mentioned Albanian inscriptions in Gandzasar monastery, which disappeared over the course of history.

It seems that Albanian Christians in the Muslim environment had close interactions with Christian Armenians but tried to maintain their independence. The independence of the Albanian Catholicasate in Ganzdasar, located in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, is confirmed by many medieval sources. Nevertheless, over the centuries, many Albanians were gradually Armenized. The U.S. scholar of Armenian origin, Ronald Suny, also supports the opinion that “the Albanians in the mountainous area of Karabagh up to historic Armenia remained largely Christian and eventually merged with the Armenians.” Russian imperial policy-makers also knew of the existence of Albania: Prince Grigory Potemkin (1739-1791), in his Eastern Plan, envisaged the creation of Armenia and Albania as two separate vassal entities. (For interesting research on this issue, see Sean Pollock, Empire by Invitation.)

The whole situation with regard to the Caucasian Albanian religious heritage should be dealt with by professional historians with knowledge of relevant languages and scholarly qualifications. Moreover, the subject should be freed from the vicious attacks of nationalists of any kind.

*Farid Shafiyev is Chairman of the Baku-based Center of Analysis of International Relations and Adjunct Lecturer at ADA University, Azerbaijan. He holds a Ph.D. from Carleton University and an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School of Government, as well as a Bachelor of Law and Diploma in History from Baku State University. He is the author of “Resettling the Borderlands: State Relocations and Ethnic Conflict in the South Caucasus” by McGill-Queen’s University Press (2018), numerous articles, and op-eds.

Disclaimer: The author’s views do not necessarily reflect those of the affiliated institutions.

 

https://www.eurasiareview.com/26052021-conundrum-over-caucasian-albania-oped/

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The Art Newspaper

June 1 2021

Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches

Simon Maghakyan

Covert destruction of Armenian-Christian heritage in Azerbaijan’s autonomous republic of Nakhichevan has been exposed in recently surfaced Cold War spy imagery taken by the US in the 1970s, published here for the first time

“O Almighty God, be so kind, tell me: did you create my Agulis or did my Agulis create you?”. Thus were Agulis and its eight majestic churches serenaded by the Nobel Peace Prize-nominated Muslim Azerbaijani author Akram Aylisli, who now lives under house arrest for writing a novel on the glory and gore of that magical place.

Nestled in the far south-western foothills of the former Soviet Union, in Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan, Agulis was already a depressed village when Aylisli was born in 1937, at the height of the Stalinist Terror. Yet centuries prior, it had been the most culturally and economically vibrant small town of that key contact region straddling Europe and Asia—the Caucasus.

For more than 2,000 years, the indigenous Armenian population of Agulis and the wider canton of Goghtn (Azerbaijan’s present-day Ordubad district) created a unique culture, including folk poetry recorded as early as the fifth century that influenced the 20th-century composers Aram Khachaturian and Komitas, both of whom traced their ancestry in that region. Goghtn’s Armenian existence was terminated in the past century—first during the First World War-era Armenian Genocide, then in a complete physical erasure of all cultural remnants, following centuries of miraculous survival.

Armenian women of Agulis Photograph: Dmitri Yermakov (Argam Ayvazyan historical archive)

“If a single candle were lit for every Armenian killed violently,” Aylisli reflected in his banned novel Stone Dreams, which references 1,500 years of conquest, occupation and erasure, “the radiance of those candles would be brighter than the light of the moon.” Aylisli’s own mother, a righteous Muslim Azerbaijani resident of Agulis (Aylis in Azerbaijani) witnessed the massacre on 24-25 December 1919, when Ottoman troops, aided by local Azerbaijani opportunists, brutally killed the entire Armenian community. The Agulis Massacre formed part of Ottoman Turkey’s 1915-23 campaign known as the Armenian Genocide, in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians perished, as well as many Assyrians, Pontic Greeks and Yazidis.

Akram Aylisli in Agulis Image: courtesy of Katherine E. Young

Despite learning of his hometown’s trauma from a young age, Aylisli fell in love with its striking polychrome mountains exalted by the majestic medieval churches built by Armenians. “Each church was the exact same colour as the mountain next to it,” Aylisli wrote of the eight surviving Christian houses of worship of Agulis (several others had been destroyed during and after the 1919 Agulis Massacre), built in organic architecture “as if it had been cut out whole from the mountain and placed there, where it was easy and comfortable for God to contemplate it”.

While Aylisli describes remote Agulis as a lost paradise, it was not an isolated place. Beginning with the “Treaty of Peace and Frontiers” of 1639, the Middle East’s rival Muslim empires entered an eight-decade period of relative stability. It was during this time that the cross-continental Armenian merchants of Agulis became key players in the Silk Trade, traversing Safavid Iran, Ottoman Turkey, Russia and Europe. They brought back wealth and ideas to harmonise nature, heritage and modernity. They renovated and built a dozen majestic churches, 17 spring water qanat fountains, schools, libraries, a hundred artisan shops, and textile factories. They planted lavish orchards bursting with lemons, olives, apples, nuts, quinces, mulberry and grapes. The latter, according to the early medieval historian Movses Khorenatsi, were a key ingredient—in the form of wine—for the lyrical creations of Goghtn.

A wedding party in Agulis in the 19th century; in December 1919, Agulis’s Armenian community was eradicated as part of Ottoman Turkey’s campaign, known as the Armenian Genocide, which killed around 1.5 million people Photograph: Mesrop Papazian (Argam Ayvazyan historical archive)

When Stone Dreams was published in 2012, it evoked nostalgia for many who had seen or heard of the splendour of Agulis. After all, the town had become only a distant memory. Since the dissolution of the USSR, the government of post-Soviet Azerbaijan has forbidden any Armenian person, regardless of citizenship or profession, from visiting Agulis. But for the Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, the novel was apparently a nightmare. Seemingly overnight, Aylisli’s standing in his country went from hero to villain, all at the whim of the politician. Aliyev revoked Aylisli’s pension and title of “People’s Writer”. His writings were erased from school curricula. He was banned from travelling. His family members were fired from their jobs. His books were publicly burned.

Tovma’s interior, photographed by the researcher Argam Ayvazyan after he convinced locals to open it Image: Argam Ayvazyan archives 1964-87

Violent erasure

Until Stone Dreams, Aylisli had been Azerbaijan’s most famous author, a revered figure, his books translated into more than 30 languages. Nevertheless, in the eyes of the president, the 2012 book committed the gravest of sins: “deliberate distortion” of history, a particular fixation of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian leader. To him, the history communicated by Aylisli was nothing more than “fake news”.

From 1997 to 2006, Aylisli witnessed the violent erasure of historical traces that President Aliyev deemed unfit for existence. The successive Aliyev presidents, father and son Heydar and Ilham, along with their loyal relative and local satrap Vasif Talibov, engaged in the covert destruction of Nakhichevan’s entire indigenous Armenian-Christian heritage. This included 89 churches, 5,840 cross-stones, and more than 22,000 tombstones, an estimate based on independent researcher Argam Ayvazyan’s documentation from 1964-87.

Azerbaijani officials now say that the Armenian monuments of Nakhichevan never existed at all, despite having previously labelled them, erroneously, as “Caucasian Albanian”, in reference to a long-extinct people. After a decade-long investigation, this erasure was exposed by this writer in Hyperallergic in 2019. The Guardian rated the exposé “rock solid”; a top Azerbaijani diplomat, on the other hand, called the research “a figment of Armenia’s imagination”.

But the timeline of the destruction of the estimated 28,000 monuments can be reconstructed with precision. Aylisli sent a telegram to his country’s president, which was published in English for the first time in the 2019 investigation. “Honorable Mr. President,” wrote Aylisli to President Heydar Aliyev on 10 June 1997. “Recently it became known to me that in my native village of Aylis large-scale work is underway [by the military] for the eradication of Armenian churches and cemeteries...” Aylisli concluded with “hope that urgent measures will be undertaken on your part for ending this evil vandalism”.

International outrage

Aylisli’s telegram did not end the destruction, but international outrage halted—albeit temporarily—its most high-profile target, the cemetery of Djulfa on Iran’s border. In 2003, after Ilham Aliyev replaced his deceased father, a former KGB leader-turned-president, he started pumping oil to Western markets through new pipelines. Emboldened yet struggling with domestic legitimacy and frustration over the unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict (which in the early 1990s had displaced nearly a million people, a majority of whom were Azerbaijanis, and reduced the Azerbaijani cities of Agdam, Fizuli and Jabrayil to ghost towns), Ilham Aliyev began stoking anti-Armenian sentiment to boost his nationalist credentials.

On 6 December 2005, Talibov, the de facto ruler of the Nakhichevan republic, issued public decree No. 5-03/S, instructing an investigation and inventory of all local monuments as “the seal of Azerbaijanism of this ancient land”. Days later, Azerbaijani army platoons—caught on tape from across the border in north Iran by Bishop Nshan Topouzian—were deployed to Djulfa (in Armenian, Jugha) to finish off the destruction of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery that housed several thousand khachkars (cross stones). The government of Azerbaijan has denied that the vandalism happened, stating that Armenians never lived in Nakhichevan.

In 2008, the findings of the investigation were detailed in the bilingual (English and Azerbaijani) Encyclopedia of Nakhchivan Monuments, co-edited by Talibov himself, with a foreword that concluded that all of the region’s monuments had been demonstrated to “belong to Azerbaijani Turks” despite “Armenians’… biased information”.

Talibov’s encyclopedia listed zero Armenian monuments; yet even the multi-volume Azerbaijani Soviet Encyclopedia, which typically downplayed Armenian history, had noted the churches of Agulis. Two years after Talibov published his encyclopedia, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in collaboration with this writer, issued its very first investigation into cultural destruction, documenting the total erasure of Djulfa. The satellite investigation was necessitated by Azerbaijan’s prohibition of international access to the crime scene.

Today, the “Kuwait on the Caspian” continues to deny Agulis’s Armenian past and persecutes Aylisli for admiring its antiquity, acknowledging its pain and condemning its erasure. It also bans researchers from exploring the town. In 2013, the independent Russian journalist Shura Burtin managed to briefly sneak in, just long enough to see that no churches or cemeteries were left.

Conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh

“The most difficult thing is to learn to lie. But as soon as you learn, everything goes forward smoothly,” wrote Akram Aylisli in 2018, as he contemplated hate crime perpetration and denial in his recently-penned essay Farewell, Aylis.

As the post-Soviet flattening of Armenian heritage in the Nakhichevan region comes into view through declassified Cold War satellite imagery—affirming Aylisli’s eyewitness account—new threats seem to loom. Following the November 2020 ceasefire to the Second Nagorno-Karabakh war, approximately 1,000 antique and medieval Armenian cultural sites are now under Azerbaijan’s control. To say that these sacred heritage sites are at risk might be a monumental understatement.

The president of Azerbaijan states that Armenians are not indigenous to Nagorno-Karabakh, while mirroring charges of cultural genocide by accusing Armenians of wiping out mosques. Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian sacred sites face a grave risk, not least because Azerbaijani officials continue to deny Nakhichevan’s erasure by declaring that Armenians never existed there.

While magical Agulis is forever gone, recently declassified materials offer help in reconstructing its erased historical landscape. A rare positive side-effect of the Cold War was the mutual clandestine map-making and satellite imagery collection activities by the US and the USSR. Thanks to these, the precise locations as well as discernible images of the major churches of Agulis have been preserved. All are from the 1970s, including two maps produced by the USSR General Staff’s Office that list all the major churches, and geospatial imagery produced by the US’s declassified spy satellite programmes.

These before-and-after satellite images are published for the first time.

Stepanos

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

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Agulis’s northernmost church, Surb Stepanos (Saint Stephen), was, according to Ayvazyan, likely founded in the 12th to 13th centuries. It was rebuilt in the 17th century, during a church construction boom in eastern Armenia, then under the control of Safavid Iran, and renovated in 1845 and again in the early 20th century. The satellite image shows the fortified church and the shadow cast by its dome, which are absent from the new satellite imagery.

Tovma

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

Surb Tovma (Saint Thomas) was one of the largest and most important monastic complexes of medieval Armenia. A survivor of the 1919 Agulis Massacre recounted in his memoir that “this sanctuary surpasses all the Armenian churches and monasteries I have ever seen in its magnificence and, particularly, interior beauty”.

The fortified complex featured numerous structures, including an outdoor altar that local folklore claimed to have been a pre-fourth-century pagan temple. The inscription above the ornate door, added during a late-17th century expansion, recounted a folk tradition that dated the sacred site to the first century: “Bartholomew [the Apostle] came to Armenia and first founded the Lord’s house here. He named the place after the Apostle Saint Thomas and established an episcopal throne, on which he placed his disciple Komsi as the overseer of this land, which is the district of Goghtn. He turned over to him the chosen flock near Agulis and its renowned plain.”

Satellite images show the complete disappearance of Tovma, followed by a later construction of a mosque. According to Aylisli, Muslim Azerbaijanis boycott the new structure since “prayers offered in a mosque built in the place of a church don’t reach the ears of Allah”.

Early 20th-century photograph of Tovma in the foreground of Agulis Courtesy of the History Museum of Armenia

Kristapor

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

Situated in a prime central location of Agulis, across the bridge from the famed bazaar (now destroyed), Surb Kristapor (Saint Christopher), per local folklore, was founded in the first century by the Apostle Jude Thaddeus. The merchant Zakaria of Agulis recounted the rebuilding of the church in the 1670s, for which he served as a patron, and the addition of a sealed donation box “with a European lock” in 1680.

Like nearby Tovma, Kristapor displayed 17th-century frescoes by the celebrated artist Naghash Hovnatan, who also painted the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, the centre of the Armenian Church. In the late 19th century, the church established a school for girls. A photograph of Kristapor adorns the dust cover of Aylisli’s trilogy Farewell, Aylis, translated by Katherine E. Young. Satellite images show the church’s complete disappearance.

A historic image of Surb Kristapor © Argam Ayvazyan Archives

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Mets Astvatsatsin

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

Described by Aylisli as the “Mecca and Medina for Armenians”, Mets Anapat Surb Astvatsatsin (Greater Hermitage Holy Mother of God) was a large complex resting on the hills of Agulis, 1.5km to the east of the town. The fortified monastery included a dozen structures, in addition to the church, vineyard, fountain and graveyards. In the 1980s, Ayvazyan surveyed 97 tombstones at Mets Astvatsatsin, 46 of which displayed inscriptions. The site is believed to have originally been a pagan shrine, predating the adoption of Christianity in AD301, reinforced by the reported discovery of clay and metal pagan statuettes during an 1874 renovation that were immediately destroyed by two religious zealots.

Mets Astvatsatsin was a well-known destination for late-medieval Armenian pilgrims, especially for the August holiday of the Assumption of Holy Mother of God. Likely due to its rocky terrain, the outline of the foundations can still be seen in the post-destruction satellite imagery, suggesting that the remote site’s total erasure may have posed a monumental challenge to the Azerbaijani military.

A historic image of Mets Astvatsatsin © Argam Ayvazyan Archives

 

Hakob Hayrapet

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

Rebuilt in the 17th century and renovated in 1901, Surb Hakob Hayrapet (Saint Jacob of Nisibis) was the smallest of Agulis’s surviving churches. The USSR General Staff maps identify the church as a Christian monument, instead of a regular church. The imagery attests to its complete disappearance.

 

Hovhannes

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

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Renovated in the 17th century, Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich (Saint John the Baptist) was one of the main churches of Agulis. It was also famous for being the burial grounds of Priest Andreas, who in 1617 prevented the sexual enslavement of Armenian schoolchildren during the visit of the Persian Shah Abbas by shaving their heads to make them appear unattractive. For that, the furious Shah had the priest tortured and executed.

In 1922, a survivor of the Agulis Massacre visited Hovhannes, recounting that “its dome and belfry had been destroyed, and the door removed. The church had been thoroughly plundered and then pulled down. Its yard and two large gardens had been totally devastated, just like the houses and other gardens adjoining it.” Satellite imagery shows the church largely intact, before its complete disappearance in subsequent images.

Surb Hovhannes Mkrtich © Argam Ayvazyan Archives

Amarayin

Image: KH-9 Hexagon and Google Earth satellite imagery analysed by Caucasus Heritage Watch and Simon Maghakyan

The two adjoining churches of lower Agulis, one of which is a domeless basilica, are known by a variety of names. It appears that additional historical Armenian remains, including house ruins, around the Amarayin complex have also been destroyed.

Cemeteries and historical ruins throughout Agulis

1977 USSR General Staff map section pinpointing the churches, cemeteries, and ruins of Agulis

The USSR General Staff map pinpoints half-a-dozen cemeteries and many more ruins. Due to substantial challenges involved with identifying medieval cemeteries (combined, Agulis had approximately 2,000 historical tombstones, many of which were photographed and sketched by Ayvazyan in the 1970s and 1980s), we refrained from identifying the cemeteries or other ruins, including the large remnants of Surb Shmavon (Saint Simon the Zealot) church.

• Simon Maghakyan is a visiting scholar at Tufts University, Massachusetts, and a lecturer at the University of Colorado Denver.

DISCLOSURE NOTE: This report was supported by an Armenian General Benevolent Union grant. The declassified Cold War materials were acquired and analysed with help from the scholars Argam Ayvazyan, Lori Khatchadourian and Adam T. Smith, as well as the Yerevan-based non-profit organisation Research on Armenian Architecture.

Response from Tahir Taghizade, Ambassador of Azerbaijan in the UK

“First and foremost, we need to make it clear that there is no such thing as ‘Armenian heritage’ in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic simply because Armenians never lived there. Primary academic research on the history of the region would testify to this. Non-existing sites or cemeteries cannot be destroyed.

“Armenia’s claims for ‘Armenian heritage’ in Nakhchivan is nothing more than an effort to support their—yet another—territorial claim against Azerbaijan using fake propaganda and ungrounded allegations. This is also to divert the world’s attention from cultural genocide that Armenia, in blatant violation of the relevant international norms, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its Protocols, have committed in Azerbaijan’s Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent regions during their occupation by Armenian forces (1992-2020).

“More than 400 monuments, religious sites and other cultural objects were totally destroyed, demolished and desecrated by Armenia to annihilate any sign of cultural presence of Azerbaijan in these territories. Major cities like Aghdam, Fizuli, Jabrayil, Zangilan, Gubadli, Lachin, Kalbajar were razed to the ground. Out of 67 mosques and Islamic religious shrines, 64 have been destroyed or significantly damaged and desecrated. More than 900 Muslim graveyards, and tombs and shrines were ruined. Now that Azerbaijan liberated these territories, vast evidence is available verifying the scale of vandalism committed by Armenia.

“Regretfully, our appeals to the relevant international organisations to investigate war crimes including the deliberate destruction, misappropriation, alteration of our cultural heritage, as well as illicit removal of our cultural properties by Armenia have been ignored throughout the 30-year occupation. We welcome the interest now being shown in this respect.”

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/feature/agulis

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The National Interest

Oct 22 2021

Azerbaijan’s Aliyev is a Strategic Liability, Not an Asset

Aliyev may be a dictator, but Western denial of Azerbaijan’s new reality and neglect of his increasing belligerence promise a far bloodier future for justice and democracy in the region than he does.

by Michael Rubin

lham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan for nearly eighteen years, sits atop a mirage. Azerbaijan’s capital Baku exudes wealth. Luxury boutiques like Bulgari, Christian Dior, Gucci, and Trussardi line Neftchiler Avenue across Primorsky Park from the Bay of Baku. Luxury hotels like the Four Seasons, Marriott Absheron, and the Hilton Baku overlook the cornice. Car dealerships showcase the latest Rolls Royces, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris. Azerbaijan is hardly the only country to sport such an ostentatious display—Persian Gulf emirates do as well—but the wealth extremes among Azeri citizens are greater, as anyone who has bypassed the official tours to see the mudbrick houses and shantytowns outside the capital can attest. While those associated with the Aliyev family and his inner circle might afford Baku’s luxury goods, most city residents, including the educated and professional class, barely scrape by. Travel an hour or two outside the capital, and the situation is even worse.

Azerbaijan is among the world’s most corrupt countries; Transparency International ranks Azerbaijan with Russia, Mali, and Malawi. In contrast, neighboring Armenia sits alongside Greece and Slovakia in the rankings, while Georgia scores even better. The recent Pandora Papers exposé showed that family members of senior Azeri officials had bought or sold tens of millions of dollars of luxury real estate.

Politically, Azerbaijan remains an authoritarian dictatorship. Freedom House assesses that Azeris living under Aliyev’s dictatorship enjoy less freedom than Palestinians struggling under Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip and Houthi repression in Yemen; Azeris enjoy fewer civil liberties than the Chinese under President Xi Jinping’s repressive rule.

Why the West Ignores Azerbaijan’s Reality

Western states have ignored Aliyev’s corruption and repression for a variety of reasons:

The United Kingdom shields Azerbaijan at international forums because of British Petroleum’s interest in the country’s energy market. While China’s trade with Azerbaijan has historically been only a fraction of Great Britain’s, Beijing’s ambitions in Azerbaijan are quickly growing, which ironically makes China and the United Kingdom allies in the United Nations Security Council offering blind support to Azerbaijan, when the United Nations considers issues involving the South Caucasus.

Israel, meanwhile, has long-standing ties with Azerbaijan that are rooted in the arms-for-energy trade. During last year’s Nagorno-Karabakh war, Azerbaijan used Israeli drones against both civilian and military targets to turn the tide of the war after ethnic Armenian forces in Nagorno-Karabakh rebuffed the initial Azerbaijani invasion.

Traditionally, both Israel and the United States also value Azerbaijan for its strategic location and willingness to allow espionage, if not full-fledged operations, against the Islamic Republic of Iran. While the mostly Shi’ite Azerbaijan once sought to distinguish itself from theocratic Iran to its south, in recent years, Aliyev has played the issue both ways: coasting on Azerbaijan’s past reputation while increasing his ties with Iran (and Russia), recent disputes with Tehran notwithstanding.

Azerbaijan’s reputation for religious tolerance and secularism also attracts many Western supporters. Certainly, Azerbaijan deserves praise in this regard, though the myth does not live up to reality. While Azerbaijan has generally protected its Jewish community, Aliyev’s government has long targeted Azerbaijan’s Christians, in some cases by erasing centuries-old cultural property like the graveyard in Julfa that Azerbaijani troops systematically destroyed. More recently, Aliyev’s cooperation with and tolerance for Syrian jihadi mercenaries, whom he used in his fight against Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenians, raise questions about his outlook. In many ways, Aliyev appears to be taking a page from Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s playbook: Distract the West with paeans to the secular past while quietly co-opting, if not promoting, religious extremists to act as policy proxies. When countries have embraced such tactics, the result has been blowback that harmed the standing of religious minorities. Azerbaijan’s subordination of its foreign policy to Erdoğan’s—even allowing Turkish diplomats veto power over Azerbaijani engagements—should raise questions about Baku’s tolerance and the ability of Israel and the United States to leverage Azerbaijani territory for other strategic pursuits in the near future.

Beyond the strategic reasons for ignoring Azerbaijan’s reality, there is also the reality of caviar diplomacy and golden parachutes. Azerbaijan pays well. The regime spends lavishly on gifts, luxury hotel suites, and dinners and provides access to those who parrot official positions and, more importantly, refuse to research or consider counterarguments. Some Israeli officials openly talk about how they hope to enter the Azerbaijani business scene after retirement. Former American officials might be more discreet in what they say, but their actions do not substantively differ.

Aliyev’s orientation should raise questions for any honest analyst, but, what really makes Azerbaijan a strategic liability, is Aliyev’s increasing unwillingness to live within Azerbaijan’s borders. This problem goes beyond disputes with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the contested territory recognized by most countries as Azerbaijani territory, and extends to Aliyev’s territorial claims over Armenia proper, which the Azerbaijani dictator has increasingly voiced over the past decade.

For example, on November 20, 2012, Aliyev said, “Armenia as a country is of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad, a territory artificially created on ancient Azerbaijani lands.” The following year, Aliyev gave a speech in which he promised not only to retake Nagorno-Karabakh but also all of Armenia. “Azerbaijanis will live on their historical lands in the future. Our historical lands are Irevan [Yerevan] and Zangezur regions,” he said. He returned to this theme on January 22, 2014, during a visit to Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second-largest city, when he described Armenia as “historical Azerbaijani lands” that his countrymen will eventually regain. While Minsk Group diplomats pushed a land-for-peace and security deal, Aliyev promised Azeris that an Armenian withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh and the adjacent districts would only be the first phase of a final solution.

At Nowruz celebrations the following year, Aliyev tripled down on the theme. “The Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be settled only within the framework of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territorial integrity,” he said, then added, “after that, we will return to our ancient lands—to Yerevan, Geicha, and Zangezur.”

While successive secretaries of state took Aliyev at his word when he promised to settle his disputes with Armenia diplomatically, Aliyev did not try to deceive his home audience. Speaking in the central Azerbaijani district of Terter in December 2016, he explained, “Today, we are not claiming any in the modern Republic of Armenia. We do not intend to reclaim Yerevan, Meghri, Goris through military force but I’m sure that time will come, and we, Azerbaijanis, will return to all our historic lands,” He then promised, “The main factor [for success] is strength. This is true. We live in the real world. So we have to become even stronger, to create a more powerful army.”

In recent years, especially as his economy has stagnated or declined against the backdrop of falling oil prices, Aliyev has increasingly turned toward revanchist claims to distract the public from his own mismanagement. During a speech to his New Azerbaijan Party, for example, Aliyev claimed that Yerevan, the territories of Lake Sevan, and the province of Syunik, also known as Zangezur, are historical Azerbaijani lands and that their return was a “strategic and political goal.” During a Baku military parade after the Azeri victory in the most recent Nagorno-Karabakh war, Aliyev called Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, as well as Armenia’s Syunik and Sevan regions “historical lands” of Azerbaijan. Such rhetoric dashes hopes for peace. Just last month, Aliyev threw cold water on Armenia’s request for talks about the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, warning Armenians that they should refrain from raising the subject since Azerbaijan has more historical grounds for claiming parts of Armenia like Zangezur and Lake Geicha.

It is one thing for Azerbaijan not to have diplomatic relations with Armenia—that can be rectified—but it is quite another to reject Armenia’s right to exist.

A Perfect Storm

Family fiefdoms seldom succeed in countries without formal, institutionalized monarchies. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak fell when he tried to promote his son to power. Likewise, Muammar Gaddafi fell as he tried to have his son Saif succeed him. Hafez al-Assad’s son Bashar did come into power, but Syria ultimately paid a far higher price as it descended into civil war.

For dictators, the problem with multi-decade rule is that political scapegoats are in short supply. For example, Erdoğan cannot blame his predecessors for the corruption and economic mismanagement that drained Turkey’s foreign reserves and crashed its currency. For all of Azerbaijan’s hydrocarbon wealth, the per capita income of Azerbaijanis is actually less than that of Georgians and Armenians, the latter of whom subsist under a Turkish-Azerbaijani economic blockade. While the citizens of Gulf emirates arguably accept a contract in which they sacrifice freedoms for wealth, the comparison between the Gulf states and Azerbaijan falters because ordinary Azeris receive little in exchange for political pliancy.

Azerbaijan now faces a perfect storm. As Aliyev seeks to promote his wife and son to succeed him, ordinary Azerbaijanis grow increasingly frustrated with their plight. They also see the cost of Aliyev’s Nagorno-Karabakh victory: infringement on Azerbaijani sovereignty by Russian and Turkish troops. Aliyev sponsors trips for foreign officials and some Azeris to recaptured areas of Nagorno-Karabakh, but few Azeris who originate from the territory are prepared to return permanently, given the region’s lack of jobs and their new roots in and around Baku. In effect, Aliyev wants to spend billions of dollars on infrastructure and Potemkin ghost towns that few Azeris want to reside in permanently during a shaky time for Azerbaijan’s economy, the rise in oil prices notwithstanding.

In this situation, Aliyev’s only recourse will be like that of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein’s in 1990—to distract and play the nationalist card. Aliyev may believe Armenia is weak, but no invasion of Armenia proper will be limited to the two states. Any attack on Armenia proper will draw Turkey, Russia, and perhaps even Iran into the fight, creating an immediate crisis for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Even if aggression brings no outside intervention, an Azerbaijani conquest of Armenian territory will not solve but rather delay the solving of Azerbaijan’s internal problems, weaken its economy, and set the cycle on repeat.

On the other hand, if Azerbaijani pressure forces Armenia to sacrifice some sovereignty for security and enter a broader security alliance with Russia, the United States and NATO would soon face ramifications elsewhere. Russia would use Armenia as an example to push other former Soviet states—not only in the Caucasus and Central Asia but also in the Baltics—into a new Russia-dominated union.

Aliyev may be a dictator, but Western denial of Azerbaijan’s new reality and neglect of his increasing belligerence promise a far bloodier future for justice and democracy in the region than he does. At issue is not simply some theoretical dispute between two small states but the West’s strategic position against retrograde forces like Russia, Iran, and jihadism that want to reimagine the post-World War II liberal order.

Michael Rubin is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/azerbaijan%E2%80%99s-aliyev-strategic-liability-not-asset-195170

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AFP

Azerbaijan activists sound alarm over wave of killings of women
By Elman MAMEDOV
Wed, November 10, 2021

Dilara Bagiyeva's face grew pale as she recounted how, after suffering
abuse from her husband for a decade, he turned on their eight-year-old
daughter in a drunken fit last year.

That evening in November, he returned home intoxicated to their
13th-floor apartment in Azerbaijan's capital Baku, beating Bagiyeva
first in the bedroom, then the hallway and finally the kitchen, where
he tried to throw her from the balcony.

Before the 41-year-old English teacher lost consciousness, she
remembered her daughter Farah pleading: "Daddy, don't hit my mom."

When she came to, Farah was nowhere to be seen. Police who arrived at
the scene shortly after refused to let Bagiyeva see the body.

"He dragged me out onto the balcony that night to throw me off.
Instead, he threw my baby out the window," Bagiyeva said.

"She was my everything," she added, looking at a picture of her
daughter on her phone.

Bagiyeva is among thousands of women subjected to domestic violence in
Azerbaijan, where activists are sounding the alarm over femicide
despite considerable barriers in the conservative Caspian Sea country.

Seventy-one women were killed in the ex-Soviet republic by husbands or
male relatives last year and 48 more in the first eight months of
2021, the office of Azerbaijan's prosecutor general told AFP in an
email.

The first Muslim nation to introduce universal suffrage in 1919,
Azerbaijan is one of the most secular countries in the Islamic world.

But wives and daughters are often limited to carrying out family
duties in its male-dominated society, which tolerates abuse against
women.

- 'Fear of retribution' -

Officials said the approximately 2,000 cases of domestic violence
against women that are reported annually are just the tip of the
iceberg, as most victims remain silent.

"Many women don't phone the police for fear of retribution from family
members," said Taliya Ibrahimova of the state committee for women's
affairs.

The government last year adopted a four-year action plan to combat
domestic violence that included setting up a hotline and a state-run
shelter for victims.

Ibrahimova said a 2010 law to tackle domestic violence was being
updated, and the violation would soon become a separate category of
offence in the penal code.

But activists say the measures are not enough, and accuse the
authoritarian government of President Ilham Aliyev of failing to
protect women.

"Femicide is a political issue because tackling the problem requires
political will," said Gulnara Mehdiyeva, a prominent women's rights
activist.

She described Azerbaijan's political system as "despotic", and said
the authorities "don't want citizens to know their rights".

Mehdiyeva said activists had come under pressure from conservative
groups since March 8 last year, when they held their first rally to
raise awareness of violence against women.

She said a pro-government website had even leaked recordings of her
conversations with a friend "to portray me as a whore and to shame
me".

There is a prevalent "negative attitude in society that accuses us of
eroding family values", Mehdiyeva said.

The US embassy this year raised concerns over the killings of women,
while the British embassy urged Azerbaijan to join the 2011 Istanbul
Convention on combating violence against women and domestic violence.

Azerbaijan is among just a handful of countries that have not ratified
the first legally binding international treaty to address the issue.

- 'Until my last breath' -

The United Nations says Azerbaijan lacks the statistics to accurately
track trends on women's rights, including on the pay gap and physical
and sexual harassment.

But it noted that, as of February this year, women held only 18
percent of seats in parliament.

"Women lack the foundational representation in public office that
would ensure that others hear their voices," the Borgen Project, a
US-based women's rights group said last year.

Lawyer Zibeyda Sadikova said police "don't take seriously" women who
report domestic abuse, but instead "shame and subject them to
psychological pressure".

"Many women I try to convince to report (abuse) to the police say they
already did, and the police told them to reconcile with their
husbands, who have since continued beating them," she said.

"Most people in society think a woman must be locked up at home and
her husband has the right to beat her."

She said the flawed implementation of government policies and gaps in
legislation added to the problem.

"The government must fill such legal gaps, initiate an
awareness-raising campaign, and ensure women's access to psychological
and judicial assistance," she said.

Bagiyeva said her husband was at first only charged for beating her
and not for murdering her child, whose death was ruled a suicide.

But she said a murder probe was now underway, and she had appealed to
the prosecutor general and even to strongman Aliyev for justice.

"I will fight until my last breath, until my strength expires, to
restore justice, so the truth comes out," she said.

eg-im/jbr/mbx/ah

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://news.yahoo.com/azerbaijan-activists-sound-alarm-over-062056315.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!9G_9rM_pP51TCW2eKe8fSJUJX9xsHwTMQ0ytKJfvZhoKENDDYESJCuFSEBtwsA$

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AEI - American Enterprise Institute

Nov 10 2021

Op-Ed

The second Nagorno-Karabakh war ended one year ago today

19fortyfive.com

Michael Rubin

November 10, 2021

Today marks the first anniversary of the victory of Azerbaijan, Turkey, and mercenary Syrian Jihadis in the 44-day Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. The war was a disaster for both Armenia and the Armenian-populated, internationally unrecognized state of Artsakh which lost half its territory.

For Azerbaijan, the war did what decades of Minsk Group diplomacy did not: Change the status quo in order to return territories the Armenian military and local Nagorno-Karabakh had seized during the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, between 1988 and 1994. For decades of Azerbaijani rulers, this was the only just solution. Not only had Armenia occupied seven Azerbaijani districts between the Armenian border and Nagorno-Karabakh, but the United Nations, Russia, the United States, and the rest of the international community also recognized Nagorno-Karabakh as Azerbaijani territory.

To hear the declarations of Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, Karabakh has been the most important issue facing Azerbaijan. Azerbaijanis mark November 8 as “Victory Day” in the “Patriotic War,” a name that has upset Russians who complain online that the Azerbaijani name purposely erodes the sanctity of the Russia’s commemoration of the “Great Patriotic War,” as they often refer to World War II. Aliyev opened a theme park reminiscent of the monuments built by Saddam Hussein. Azerbaijani online trolls and those seeking Aliyev’s favor also embrace the narrative that Karabakh is an integral part of Azerbaijan culturally and geographically. Too often, such statements become exclusionary in nature marked by the denial of the centuries-long Armenian attachment to the territory.

That Armenian cultural attachment to Nagorno-Karabakh is without question, despite efforts by Azeri and Turkish militants to erase vestiges of the Armenian presence in territories they control, in Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions throughout the South Caucasus. Certainly, there is blame to go around; Armenians did little to preserve Azerbaijani cites evacuated during the most recent period of Armenian control. But, there is a huge difference between neglect and deliberate destruction as seen in the destruction of the Armenian cemetery in Julfa, in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhchivan, or in Armenian churches in Shushi.

In the year since the Azerbaijani conquests, Aliyev has contracted construction companies affiliated with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to build highways and other infrastructure in Azerbaijani-controlled portions of Nagorno-Karabakh and, especially, the mountaintop fortress city of Shushi/Shusha (the former being the Armenian name and the latter its Azerbaijani name). These construction contracts have essentially been large payoffs to Erdoğan personally for his military role. Azerbaijani and state-controlled Turkish media and Aliyev’s paid online army, meanwhile, have highlighted homecomings for Azeris who the first Nagorno-Karabakh war had displaced.

The question remains open, however, whether Aliyev’s bombast aside, Azeris are as aligned to Aliyev’s territorial ambitions or as attached to Karabakh as their dictator insists. Aliyev family rule has impoverished Azerbaijan. According to World Bank data, Azerbaijan’s per capita income is slightly less than that of neighboring Armenia and Georgia. Because Azerbaijan’s ruling family are billionaires several times over, they actually skew the data. In reality, the average Azeri is far poorer than their Armenian and Georgian counterparts. Many Azeris, including those who had been displaced from Karabakh and who, theoretically, should have the greatest desire to return settled over the decades in and around Baku, Azerbaijan’s capital and the center of its economy. Even with Turkey and Azerbaijan’s post-war infrastructure investment in Karbakhi towns, few Azeris seem inclined to return. This, in turn, has led the Aliyev regime to threaten to cut off their benefits in order to compel their return.

Herein lies the irony: While Aliyev invokes his conquest of Nagorno-Karabakh as a great victory, the Azeris who come from the region and in whose names Aliyev has acted are far more ambivalent. In effect, they vote with their feet. Aliyev may claim broad popular affirmation, but for Azeris with some roots in Karbakh, patriotism is subordinate to the reality of Aliyev’s corruption and economic mismanagement.

Efforts to erase Armenian heritage are cynical, and Azerbaijan’s claims and attacks on precedent erode its legal case: First, when Azerbaijan reasserted its 1991 independence, it based its claims on its pre-Soviet statehood prior to Josef Stalin’s gifting to Azerbaijan of Nagorno-Karabakh. Secondly, Aliyev’s recent claims to the Zangezur corridor because of pre-Soviet Azeri presence affirm Armenia’s arguments for the justice of its control over Nagorno-Karabakh.

The biggest item undermining Azerbaijan’s ultimate claims to sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh, however, might be that despite acting in their names, Azeris tracing their roots to the region seem less doctrinaire than the dictator who has for decades used the Karabakh issue to distract from his own economic mismanagement.

https://www.aei.org/op-eds/the-second-nagorno-karabakh-war-ended-1-year-ago-today/

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Public Radio of Armenia

Dec 14 2021

Armenia foils Azerbaijan’s propaganda event as part of UN anti-corruption conference in Egypt

December 14, 2021, 23:59

2 minutes read

The Armenian delegation headed by Prosecutor General Artur Davtyan has foiled an anti-Armenian event organized by Azerbaijan within the framework of the 9th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the UN Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) under way in Sharm el-Sheikh Egypt, Armenpress reports.

During the event titled “Misuse of fund raising activities for corruption and related criminal purposes” the Azerbaijani delegation attempted to label Armenian organizations as institutions financing terrorism and to present the realization of the right of the people of Artsakh to self-determination as “separatism” and “terrorism.”

In an abuse to the platform, the Azerbaijani delegates began to discredit Armenia, Artsakh Republic, Armenian organizations and Diaspora individuals instead of touching upon the manifestations of rampant corruption in their own country.

To give legitimacy to the event, the Azerbaijani delegation decided to use the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its political speculations, inviting UNODC representatives to take part in the thematic discussion as speakers. In addition, without permission from the UNODC Secretariat, Azerbaijan used the structure’s logo on the event materials to try to create the impression that UNODC and the 9th session of the UN Convention against Corruption are co-organizers of the event.

The Armenian delegation undertook measures to counter the Azerbaijani propaganda. In particular, at the request of the Armenian delegation, the UNODC Secretariat demanded that the Azerbaijani delegation remove the logos of the UNODC from all documents related to the event. In addition, at the request of the Armenian delegation, the UNODC expert, who was supposed to speak at the thematic discussion, stated that the UNODC Secretariat usually provides speakers for relevant events at the request of the participating countries. He also stressed that the presence of the Secretariat at the event in no way means that UNODC endorses any speeches or announcements made during the event.

Consul of Armenia in Egypt Rafayel Movsesyan then took the floor, strongly criticizing the anti-Armenian event and demanding that Azerbaijan stop hate propaganda against famous Armenian organizations and figures who tried to draw the attention of the international community to the violence against the civilian population of Artsakh, crimes against humanity, violations of international humanitarian law, destruction of the Armenian cultural and religious heritage during the war in 2020 and the humanitarian crisis created as a result of the aggression of Azerbaijan. He reminded Azerbaijan of the December 7 decision of the UN International Court of Justice to indicate provisional measures against Azerbaijan, obliging the latter to take steps to stop propaganda of racial hatred and discrimination against persons of Armenian descent, including by officials and public institutions.

A very limited number of foreigners physically participated in the meeting. They left the hall immediately after the speech of the Armenian delegates.

 

https://en.armradio.am/2021/12/14/armenia-foils-azerbaijans-propaganda-event-as-part-of-un-anti-corruption-conference-in-egypt/

[Yervant1]

Dec 27 2021

New Azerbaijani propaganda video aims to alienate Orthodox Christians from Armenians
by ATHENS BUREAU

Azerbaijan has attempted to present Armenians as responsible for vandalizing a Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Artsakh.

The video, made by a Russian-Azeri woman who belongs to the party of dictator Ilham Aliyev and is a deputy head of the youth branch, attempts to to alienate the Russian Orthodox church from Armenians.

Now, it’s Greek translation and uploaded by the Azeri Ambassador to his YouTube channel, clearly demonstrates the nasty intentions of these falsifiers and deniers of history.

Artsakh has always been proud of the Monuments of Religious and Cultural Heritage that are in its territory and considers them as part of its Historical and Cultural heritage.

The Armenians of Artsakh also pay special attention to the work of protecting and preserving the monuments of Russian religious and cultural heritage.

Noteworthy, the Republic of Artsakh’s annual state budget provides for spending on the preservation and restoration of Historical and Cultural monuments.

The Russian church Surp Astvatzin / Saint Astvatzin is located in Gevorgavan in the Martuni area of Artsakh Republic.

The church was built more than 100 years ago by immigrants from Russia. The church was made of limestone and it is yellow in the appearance.

It has two entrances, that open from the west and north sides. The number of windows is more than two dozen. The parishioners were Russian settlers.

In 1989, restoration began of the church began, which were stopped due to the aggression that Azerbaijan unleashed against Artsakh and in which the church suffered major damage again.

Before the war started in 2020, the government of Artsakh worked on the church restoration plan and was looking for a sponsor to start work on the church restoration.

Thus, the propaganda material by the Azerbaijani Embassy in Greece, with its translation in Greek regarding the allegation against the Russian Orthodox religious sites, is another provocation that is baseless and riddled with fake information aimed at spreading hatred against Armenians.

More disturbingly, the Azerbaijani Embassy in Athens is once again trying to undermine and put a wedge in Armenia’s relationship with Greece and other friendly countries.

Azerbaijan, which deliberately destroys cultural monuments, is trying with baseless accusations to hide the numerous cases of vandalism that itself has committed.

It must be noted that on December 7, 2021 the International Court of Justice, in the context of the case – Armenia against Azerbaijan, judged that Azerbaijan must first of all “take all necessary measures to prevent discrimination and its incitement, including by its officials and public institutions.”

On the other hand, the Court requires Azerbaijan to “Take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration towards Armenian cultural heritage, including churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts.”

Contrary to the decisions of the International Court of Justice, Azerbaijani officials continue the targeted spread of racial hatred and take no measures to prevent the destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage lawlessness.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/12/27/azerbaijani-propaganda-video/

[Yervant1]

Jan 17 2022

Azeri propaganda and the dirty role of Greek media to the detriment of the Armenians

It is questionable how it is possible in a country like Greece, which is supposed to have traditional ties of friendship with Armenia, to host full-page articles by Azeris, enemies of Armenia, and to present analyses of the propagandists of this dictatorial country, in one of the our most authoritative newspapers – such as VIMA.

You will tell me it’s a lot of money, especially when these media outlets have passed onto businessmen-oligarchs, who capitulate their whole lives, even with the devil, to enrich their wealth.

For them you see, friendship, the rules of morality and honest relations between states and peoples, are unknown words.

The only God they believe in is Mammon – the allegory of money and wealth. And they follow faithfully, as much as anyone else, one of his commands, which is “Sell first, sell all.”

So we saw in the valid financial pages of the online newspaper VIMA on Friday, January 14, the views of a representative of Aliyev’s dictatorial regime, named Orhan Bagirov.

Of course he did not see a door open and then entered. He paid handsomely to register his propaganda as an important view of a technocrat.

READ MORE: Armenian Statehood stands above all.

He certainly belongs to the army of loyal men of dictator Aliyev’s regime, and says he is an expert on global and regional economic relations at the Center for International Relations Analysis in Azerbaijan.

In short, he is a well-educated agent and propagandist of Azerbaijan.

What does this guy say? That Azerbaijan is anxious for the future of Armenia and everyone in his country’s government, certainly among them Aliyev, have lost their sleep and have a single meaning that constantly torments them – how to recover the economy of Armenia and consider that it is a pity for Armenia to miss this opportunity to open the corridor to its southern border, in the Zangezur region, for the Azeri corridor to pass through and join Nakhichevan region, which will then lead them safely to mother Turkey.

On this occasion, the railway network, which Armenia so desperately needs, will be built to serve the land transport of its trade, since all other routes in the north of the country are closed and excluded by its ally Russia.

In fact, he raises the issue of the guarding of this corridor by the Russians.

The Azeri propagandist states that there is no reason for Armenia to worry, as long as this corridor is guarded by the Russian army, since on the other border of Armenia with Azerbaijan, as the “great” expert says, they serve together Armenian and Russian soldiers.

However, we do not see such a thing affecting the Azeris, who almost everyday violate the ceasefire agreement they have signed and cowardly attack not only Armenian soldiers, but also ordinary civilians, and kill them.

The same and worse things are happening in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) in order to expel the last Armenians from the area.

From the first moment since the war ended, the Azeris have set their sights on the Armenian area of Zangezur, which they threaten to gain even with war.

In the highly propagandistic text of the Aliyev regime, which VIMA unabashedly hosts, Orhan Bagirov sells seaweed for silk ribbons.

READ MORE: Greek, Cypriot and Armenian forces complete Special Precision Snipers 2021 joint training.

In fact, he goes one step further with his miserable propaganda, stating that the Armenian government agrees with the plans of dictator Aliyev, but some nationalists in Armenia react, who, if wished, influence the rest of the opposition.

All this, of course, is part of a game of impressions that Azerbaijan seeks to set up with paid listings in various media available to host their propaganda for a few coins. You see, the dignity of some Greek media is valued so cheaply.

The Armenians of the Diaspora, as well as all Greeks, will do well to turn a deaf ear to the various sirens and turn their backs on the poor who serve lies and cheap propaganda.

The truth is that Armenia is united in this difficult time, despite the difficulties it has gone through and is going through, and it is not going to cede its territorial integrity to the fascists of Turkish expansion and the implementation of the Pan-Turkist plan.

Krikor Tsakijian is a contributor to Politis Press.

READ MORE: New Azerbaijani propaganda video aims to alienate Orthodox Christians from Armenians.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/01/18/azeri-propaganda-greek-media/

[Yervant1]

Jan 19 2022

Paris: Aliyev's remarks on Pécresse's Karabakh trip "unacceptable"

January 19, 2022 - 12:33 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Paris considers unacceptable Azerbaijan's statements targeting French presidential hopeful Valérie Pécresse after her trip to Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers on Tuesday, January 18.

Pécresse visited Armenia in late December and made a trip to Karabakh, accompanied by former European Commissioner and French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier. According to Pécresse, she visited the region because she is concerned about the fate of Christians in the Middle East.

The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry handed a note to the Chargé d'Affaires of France in Baku, describing the trip as illegal. Azeri President Ilham Aliyev claimed, meanwhile, that Pécresse entered Karabakh "in secret" and that the Azerbaijani authorities would not allow her to leave if they knew about the visit.

Le Drian on Tuesday weighed in on the matter, describing Azerbaijan's reaction as unacceptable, but adding that he expects parliamentarians and officials to notify the French authorities in advance about their trips.

"President Aliyev's words refer to an elected official and presidential candidate of France, they are unacceptable in form and substance. I have informed the Azerbaijani ambassador to France about this," he said.

https://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/297939/Paris_Aliyevs_remarks_on_P%C3%A9cresses_Karabakh_trip_unacceptable

[Yervant1]

Armenpress.com

FBI raids the home of Co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, Azerbaijani Ambassador skips the town

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21:30, 21 January, 2022

YEREVAN, JANUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. The FBI on Wednesday raided Democratic Congressman Henry Cuellar's home and campaign office in Texas as part of a wide-ranging federal probe relating to the former Soviet state of Azerbaijan and several U.S. businessmen, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

A federal grand jury in Washington is investigating the matter, but it's unclear if Cuellar is a target of the grand jury's probe, ABC News was told.

After FBI agents executed a search warrant at Cuellar's home in Laredo, Texas, an aide to Cuellar said in a statement that the congressman "will fully cooperate in any investigation."

"He is committed to ensuring that justice and the law are upheld," the statement said.

Cuellar, who represents Texas' 28th Congressional District along the U.S.-Mexico border, has been in Congress since 2005. In recent years he has served as a co-chair of the Congressional Azerbaijan Caucus, and repeatedly met with Azerbaijan officials, including the ambassador of Azerbaijan, Elin Suleymanov.

The Armenian National Committee of America wrote on its Facebook page that Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijan’s longtime ambassador in Washington, skipped town one step ahead of high-profile FBI raid and major federal criminal corruption probe into Azerbaijani bribery schemes (long an open secret in DC circles).

 

 

https://armenpress.am/eng/news/1073694.html?fbclid=IwAR1xQ3-Qe6x_jdt-VGzWqYpb8uv6ANTypY-qJ16DwcSYjM1c5jmQbf0g2nc

[Yervant1]

panorama.am

Armenia - Jan 26 2022

Armenian expert: Baku was not an Azerbaijani city even in late 19th century

Baku was not an Azerbaijani city even at the end of the 19th century, Armenian expert on Iran Vardan Voskanyan claims.

"Despite the fact that, unlike the dictator of Baku, who declares day in, day out that Yerevan is an "Azerbaijani city", none of the Armenian leaders has ever claimed that Baku is an Armenian city, but the fact is that it was not at least an Azerbaijani city even in the late 19th century,” he wrote on Facebook late on Tuesday, referring to an 1891 book.

“At the time, there were more Persian-speaking and Armenian populations in this city of Caucasian Persians (Tats) than Turkic-speaking ancestors of the present-day ethnic Azerbaijanis in the settlement.

“Out of around 100,000 inhabitants of Baku, only some 40,000 were Shia Muslims, the majority of whom were Caucasian Persians or Tats, while Armenians numbered almost 26,000,” Voskanyan said.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2022/01/26/Armenian-expert-Baku/2631952

[Yervant1]

Asbarez.com

Azerbaijanis Remove Cross from Spitak Khach Church in Occupied Hadrut

by Asbarez Staff

January 27, 2022

in Armenia, Artsakh, Featured Story, Latest, News, Top Stories

The cross has been removed from the Spitak Khach Church in occupied Hadrut

Azerbaijan continues its policy of destroying cultural monuments and erasing Armenian traces in territories it has occupied since the end of the 2020 war.

The latest example of vandalism is the removal of the cross from the Spitak Khach (White Cross) Church in the village of Vank in the Hadrut region, Karabakh Records reported.

Azerbaijanis have removed the roof of the church, claiming refurbishing efforts

A video shared on social media clearly shows that the Azerbaijanis have removed the cross of the church.

Under the guise of renovation, Azerbaijanis demolished the roof of the church, thus trying to completely eliminate the Armenian cultural trace, to present another Armenian church as belonging to the Udis.

In early November 2021 Azerbaijan organized a visit of religious representatives of its Udi community to the church. During the visit, the church was presented as an “Albanian-Udi cultural monument.”

https://asbarez.com/azerbaijanis-remove-cross-from-spitak-khach-church-in-occupied-hadrut/?fbclid=IwAR1EJA2izs874HH1Zw71uCXN5zaJrSA0hfMtVbeAjtmbpJcq2cr6lmBmfik

[Yervant1]

panorama.am

Armenia - Feb 3 2022

French MP to Azerbaijani ambassador: Who bombed civilians and churches in Artsakh?

French lawmaker Valérie Boyer took to Facebook on Wednesday to respond to the allegations of Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Rahman Mustafayev.

“Contrary to what the Azerbaijani ambassador to France says, I am not insulting his country, I am simply telling the truth.

Which countries threaten French politicians, in particular Valérie Pécresse?

Who bombed civilians and churches in Artsakh?

Which countries use forbidden weapons against Armenians?

Which countries do not return prisoners of war?

Which countries call our Armenian allies "dogs"?

Which countries recruit jihadist mercenaries?

Which countries threaten peace by attacking the sovereign territory of Armenia?

Azerbaijan and Turkey! That’s what I wanted to recall this morning when addressing the France-Artsakh Friendship Circle,” she wrote.

The France-Artsakh Friendship Circle was established on March 19, 2013. It includes politicians, MPs and senators.

https://www.panorama.am/en/news/2022/02/03/French-MP/2635713

[Yervant1]

Ahval

Delicate balancing act for Turkey over Ukraine may end in disappointment
Feb 03 2022

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is visiting Kiev on Thursday
for meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart.

The talks are aimed at strengthening a military-industrial partnership
opposed by Russia and back NATO offers to prevent a possible Russian
invasion of the country. But Erdoğan's efforts to exert Turkey's
influence and mediate a solution to the tensions may end in
disappointment with possible repercussions for Turkey's regional
standing, Le Monde’s Marie Jégo reported.


An excerpt of the article follows below:

Supporting Ukraine without irritating Russia is the balancing act that
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to undertake in
Kiev on Thursday. His visit is a strong political signal to his
Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, at a time when tension is
at its highest between Kiev and Moscow, with a large Russian military
presence along the border with Ukraine and in Belarus.

The game is shaping up to be a close one for Erdoğan, who prides
himself on having a privileged relationship with both sides, to the
point of having offered to mediate in the conflict.

"By bringing the two leaders [ukraine’s Zelensky and Russian Vladimir
Putin] together in our country if they so wish, we can pave the way
for restoring peace," he said on Jan. 26, adding that a Russian
invasion of Ukraine would be an "irrational move on Russia's part".

Erdoğan's offer of mediation was immediately rejected by the Kremlin,
quick to accuse Turkey of feeding "militaristic sentiment" in Ukraine.
At issue is the delivery of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 armed drones to the
Ukrainian army, which used them in October to hit a Russian howitzer
operated by the separatists of the Donbass supported by the Kremlin.

In the eyes of Ukrainian military experts, the possibility of
replicating in Donbass the winning combination of Turkish drones and
Ankara's military expertise, as Azerbaijan did at the time of the
autumn 2020 conflict to recapture Nagorno-Karabakh, is a real
temptation.

The October strike was "a provocation", Putin insisted in a telephone
conversation described as heated with Erdoğan on Dec. 3. Since that
episode, relations between the two presidents have cooled slightly. Mr
Putin has just declined his counterpart's invitation to visit Turkey,
postponing the visit until "when the epidemic situation and agendas
allow".

Despite Russian warnings, Ankara's support for the pro-Western
government in Kiev is not waning, on the contrary. Turkey is not ready
to give up its defence agreements with Kiev and is even more unlikely
to recognise Moscow's annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the
original land of the Turkic-speaking Tatars, once under the protection
of the Ottoman Empire.

The annexation was never recognised by Ankara, despite Russian
insistence. To make matters worse, Turkey continues to support
Ukraine's and Georgia's bid to join NATO.

For the time being, the agreements to be signed on Thursday between
Erdoğan and Zelensky - a free trade treaty and several
military-industrial agreements - can only increase the Kremlin's ire.
Since 2019, Turkey and Ukraine have considerably developed their
security partnership. Between 2019 and 2021, the two presidents met
five times, which shows how well they are getting along.

Not content with buying the Bayraktar TB2s, which tipped the military
balance in favour of Turkey's allies in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh,
Ukraine has also started producing them on its soil.

The cooperation with the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, which
has kept some nice remnants from the Soviet era, especially in terms
of aircraft engine manufacturing, is a real boon for Ankara, which is
anxious to cushion the sanctions imposed on its defence industry after
the acquisition of the Russian S-400 anti-missile system in 2019 and
the war waged in the autumn of 2020 in Nagorno-Karabakh.

As evidence of this growing cooperation, the Turkish company Baykar,
which produces the TB2 armed drone, has just acquired a plot of land
not far from the Ukrainian air base of Vasylkiv, south-west of Kiev,
where a training centre for the piloting and maintenance of drones is
being built.

Baykar also plans to invest with Ukrainian engine manufacturer Motor
Sich and its design office Ivchenko-Progress. In the autumn of 2021,
Motor Sich has committed to supplying the Turkish defence contractor
with turboprop engines for its new Akinci combat drone, which is more
powerful than the TB2 and which Kiev is considering acquiring. In
addition to the joint production of engines and the An-178 military
transport aircraft, Kiev and Ankara are also planning to produce
corvettes together at the shipyards of Mykolaïv, a Ukrainian port on
the Black Sea.

"For the Ukrainians, it is important to have one more partner on their
side, especially one with such a geographical position," explains
Bayram Balcı, director of the French Institute of Anatolian Studies
(IFEA) in Istanbul. For the Turks, it is urgent to deepen ties with
Ukraine, especially in view of Russian actions in the Black Sea. Since
the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow has become the dominant
power in the Black Sea, taking over a large part of Ukraine's ships
and port infrastructure.

Prior to 2014, this role was played by Turkey, which had 44 surface
ships compared to Russia's 26. Since then, Moscow has reversed the
trend, with 49 surface ships. In addition, the Russian fleet stationed
in Crimea has been reinforced. Warships and submarines operating there
have now been equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles, capable of hitting
targets 2,400 km away, while more Russian spy ships are plying the
waters to gather intelligence.

Despite the cordial understanding with his "friend" Putin, the Turkish
leader increasingly perceives Russia's military expansion in the
region as a threat to his country's geopolitical and energy security,
especially as Russia's posture in the Black Sea appears to be
increasingly aggressive, and not only towards Ukraine.

In June 2021, Russian forces fired warning shots at the British
warship HMS Defender, which was en route from the Ukrainian port of
Odessa to Georgia. And Russia's military elite is upset about the "Sea
Breeze" exercises, organised annually since 2019 by the United States,
which has invited 32 other countries, including Ukraine, to take part
in the summer of 2021.

Despite his anti-Western bias, Mr Erdoğan has constantly pleaded for a
greater NATO presence in the Black Sea. His concern has been
heightened by the discovery of an apparently vast natural gas field
off the Turkish coast in the summer of 2020.

In 2014, Turkey had condemned the annexation of Crimea, while
remaining outside the sanctions imposed by the United States and the
European Union against Russia.

Anxious to accommodate all the players, Erdoğan wants both to
strengthen his commitment to NATO, to restore its image tarnished by
the purchase of S-400, and to protect its cooperation with Russia in
Syria and in the energy field - nearly 40 percent of gas consumed in
Turkey is supplied by the Russian company Gazprom.

"The Turkish position is quite risky. The fact that Russia controls
the situation in Syria is a real sword of Damocles for Turkey," Balcı
said. In this respect, the region of Idlib, the last bastion of the
rebellion against Bashar-Al-Assad, a province adjacent to Turkey where
nearly 3 million displaced people have found refuge, is its Achilles
heel. A large-scale Russian attack on Idlib would surely create a new
wave of refugees.

"This new influx of Syrians to Turkey, which already hosts nearly 4
million, would affect the Turkish authorities and also the countries
of the Mediterranean," says the researcher.

An open conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be a tragedy, both
for Europe and for Ankara, which would be forced to end its balancing
act between NATO and Russia and give up its ambitions as a regional
power.

(This article originally appeared in Le Monde. A link in the French
language is available here.)
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2022/02/01/entre-la-russie-et-l-ukraine-l-exercice-d-equilibrisme-du-president-turc-erdogan_6111829_3210.html__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!-4xPQWKcOUHo9psc8t_lj1YXyVDyubFyfyn_OIH5uOd9RJkGp3E3aLAermoUJw$


*

https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-ukraine/delicate-balancing-act-turkey-over-ukraine-may-end-disappointment__;!!LIr3w8kk_Xxm!-4xPQWKcOUHo9psc8t_lj1YXyVDyubFyfyn_OIH5uOd9RJkGp3E3aLCeFxZbQA$

[Yervant1]

eurasianet

Feb 4 2022

Azerbaijan announces plans to erase Armenian traces from churches The minister of culture said that a working group will be set up to identify what he called “Armenian forgery” from churches, putting into practice a pseudoscientific theory that denies the churches’ Armenian origin.

Heydar Isayev Feb 4, 2022

The medieval Armenian Dadivank Monastery, in Azerbaijan's Kelbajar district. (photo: Joshua Kucera)

Azerbaijan’s government has announced that it intends to erase Armenian inscriptions on religious sites in the territory that it reclaimed in the 2020 war with Armenia.

It justified the move by arguing that the churches in fact were originally the heritage of Caucasian Albania, an ancient kingdom once located in what is now Azerbaijan. The theory, which is not supported by mainstream historians, has long been propagated by nationalist Azerbaijani historians and has been embraced by the current government in Baku.

Minister of Culture Anar Karimov told a press briefing on February 3 that a working group has been established which will be responsible for removing “the fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples.”

“We are going to inspect those places with the working group members, and after the inspection, we will consider our next steps,” Karimov said. While he did not identify who will be in the working group, the minister stated that the group will consist of “both local and international experts.”

The Albanian theory was first developed in the 1950s by prominent Azerbaijani historian Ziya Buniyatov, who claimed that Armenian inscriptions in churches on Azerbaijani territory were later additions to Albanian churches. According to this theory, they were only “Armenianized” following large-scale Armenian emigration to the region after Russia won control of the territory from Azerbaijan in the beginning of the 19th century.

The theory has gained momentum following the 2020 war, when Azerbaijan regained control of territory that contained several significant medieval Armenian churches.

In March 2021, on a trip to Hadrut, President Ilham Aliyev, together with his wife and daughter, visited a 12th-century Armenian Holy Mother of God Church, which was in ruins. “Armenians wanted to Armenianize this church and wrote inscriptions in Armenian here, but they failed. If this were an Armenian church, would they leave it in such a state? It looks as if it were a garbage dump,” Aliyev said at the church. “All these inscriptions are fake – they were written later.”

The day after the ceasefire was signed ending the 2020 war, Karimov tweeted about the medieval Armenian Dadivank Monastery in Azerbaijan’s Kelbajar district, calling it by the Azerbaijani name Khudavang and describing it as “one of the best testimonies of ancient Caucasian Albania civilization."

In May 2021, a 19th-century church in the city of Shusha that had been damaged in the war started to undergo reconstruction, to what Baku said was its “original” form.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan also has been promising to restore Azerbaijani monuments in the territory that had been neglected or vandalized during the years of Armenian occupation. In one case, Aliyev promised to restore a 19th century mosque which Armenians had presented as Persian rather than Azerbaijani.

But the announcement of the working group is the first concrete step that the government has taken overtly promising to erase Armenian traces on the churches now under their control.

“Usually even when they restore or renovate historic sites, we only become aware of what they have done afterwards,” Javid Agha, a social media commentator who has extensively researched Albanian heritage in Azerbaijan, told Eurasianet.

Agha drew a comparison with Julfa, in Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan, where thousands of Armenian “khachkar” cross stones were destroyed in 2005.

The ongoing threats to Armenian cultural sites have drawn international concern. Shortly after the war, Aliyev promised Russian President Vladimir Putin that he would protect Christian sites in the newly retaken territories. UNESCO issued a statement warning Armenia and Azerbaijan that “damage to cultural property belonging to any people whatsoever means damage to the cultural heritage of all mankind.” Efforts by UNESCO to send a mission to Karabakh to examine the cultural heritage sites have long been stalled, however.

In December, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Azerbaijan must “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts.”

“If this is true, they are blatantly violating the [iCJ] order,” Sheila Paylan, a legal adviser to Armenia for the ICJ case, told Eurasianet. “For the future of this case, it certainly doesn’t help Azerbaijan’s position that they are in full respect of the obligation to prevent desecration. This constitutes an active measure to falsify and destroy Armenian cultural heritage.”

Armenian officials did not immediately react to the Azerbaijani announcement. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Vahan Hunanyan told Eurasianet that they had no comment on this specific issue now but that they had repeatedly emphasized the importance of preserving Armenian cultural heritage.

 

With additional reporting from Ani Mejlumyan.

Heydar Isayev is a journalist from Baku.

https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-announces-plans-to-erase-armenian-traces-from-churches

[Yervant1]

Feb 6 2022

First Ambassador to Armenia Chrysantopoulos: Azerbaijan is committing “cultural fascism” on Armenian heritageby ATHENS BUREAU

The First Ambassador of Greece to Armenia, former Secretary General of the ISTC, Leonidas Chrysantopoulos, made a statement on Azerbaijani threats against Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).

“The creation of a working group by Azerbaijan to destroy the Armenian presence in Armenian churches in the occupied territories of Artsakh as a result of the last war by Baku is cultural fascism,” said the highly experienced diplomat.

“Under the pretext of Christian churches belonging to Caucasian Albanians, this group must decide that the Armenian presence should be eliminated from the churches, he continued.

“The Albanian Church of the Caucasus was an autonomous church,” Chrysantopoulos, said, adding: “It was created briefly in the fifth century and subordinated to the Armenian Apostolic Church in 705.”

“The Albanian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots, who created it in 405 and at the same time created Albanian. Therefore, it is impossible for the Armenian Church itself to use the Albanian churches,” he explained.

“Baku’s aim is to commit cultural genocide, and for that it must be condemned,” concluded the former Secretary-General of the The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (OSEP).

READ MORE: Dendias: Greece cannot acquiesce to irrational neo-Ottoman demands.

According to Hyper Allergic, Azerbaijan on February 3 announced the creation of a state body for purging politically-undesirable monuments in Artsakh.

“A working group of specialists in [Caucasian] Albanian history and architecture has been set up to remove the fictitious traces written by Armenians,” said Azerbaijan’s minister of culture Anar Karimov.

The reference to Caucasian Albanian history is a popular state-sponsored conspiracy theory that reimagines indigenous Armenian monuments as appropriated from an extinct civilization.

“I can’t find any justification for or logic in the creation of the new state organ to remove Armenian inscriptions,” Baku-based Azerbaijani researcher Cavid Aga, whose work focuses on the Caucasian Albanian language, told Hyperallergic in an interview.

“It doesn’t serve Azerbaijan’s international standing; it doesn’t serve multiculturalism policy; it won’t serve the future. There is simply no reason to do this,” he added.

READ MORE: Antalya Diplomacy Forum: Turkey wants the participation of Greece and Cyprus in its “Davos.”

Meanwhile, Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos is a member of the Hellenic Institute of Cultural Diplomacy.

He has served in the Greek Consulate in Toronto, the Permanent Delegation of Greece to the EU, as Consul General of Greece in Istanbul and Deputy Permanent Representative of Greece to the Greek Mission at the UN in New York, as well as at the Greek Embassy in Beijing.

He was the first Greek Ambassador to Yerevan, Ambassador to Poland, to Canada, and from 2006-2012 was Secretary-General of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization based in Istanbul.

He is the author of “Caucasus Chronicles-Nation Building and Diplomacy in Armenia 1993-1994” and “The 1974 Invasion of Cyprus as presented mainly by the radio and television of Canada and the USA.”

He has published many articles in the national and international revues and press.

Recently an article written by him and entitled: “The contribution of Multilateral Cultural Diplomacy in the development of humanity and the important role of Greece”, was published in Issues of Greek Cultural Diplomacy of the Foundation of International Legal Studies.

https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/02/06/chrysantopoulos-azerbaijan/

[Yervant1]

They are lying, they will do it the way they erased ten thousand cross stones and the world saw the evidence on video and did nothing.

Feb 8 2022

Azerbaijan Walks Back Plans to Erase Armenian Traces From Churches

By Eurasianet

Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Culture has responded to controversy resulting from its earlier announcement that it intended to erase Armenian inscriptions from churches located in territories the country reclaimed as a result of the 2020 war against Armenia.

On February 7, the ministry published a statement addressing what it called "reports circulated by some biased foreign mass media outlets over the past few days." It emphasized that "Azerbaijan has always been respectful of its historical and cultural heritage, regardless of religious and ethnic origin."

Four days earlier, Minister of Culture Anar Karimov told a press briefing that it would be forming a working group tasked with removing “the fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples.”

That referred to a theory, which has become prominent in Azerbaijan but is dismissed by mainstream historians, that Armenian inscriptions in churches on Azerbaijani territory were later additions to churches built under Caucasian Albania, an ancient Christian kingdom that ruled the territory that is today Azerbaijan.

The new statement reaffirmed that "a working group has been set up to study this heritage" and that "hould any falsifications be identified, they will be documented with the participation of international experts and presented to the international community." But it did not mention removing any Armenian traces, as Karimov’s earlier announcement did.

That news had attracted widespread criticism.

"We are deeply concerned by Azerbaijan's plans to remove Armenian Apostolic inscriptions from churches. We urge the government to preserve and protect places of worship and other religious and cultural sites," the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom tweeted, quoting its chair, Nadine Maenza.

TV Zvezda, a news outlet run by Russia’s Defense Ministry, published a piece on February 8 in which it pointedly referred to the Dadivank Monastery, in Azerbaijan’s Kelbajar region, as "one of the greatest monasteries of medieval Armenia." A 2,000-strong Russian peacekeeping contingent is currently stationed in Karabakh. In earlier comments, Karimov had claimed that the monastery was Albanian.

After an initial period of conspicuous silence, Armenia’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on February 8 condemning Karimov’s comments: "It once again demonstrates the fact that the cases of vandalism and destruction of the Armenian historical, cultural and religious heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh during the 44-day war and the following period, are deliberate and pre-planned, and are part of the policy of annihilating Nagorno-Karabakh’s indigenous Armenian population."

The announcement occasioned widespread public anger among Armenians. “It's time to take the government of Azerbaijan at its word when it says it intends to erase all traces of Armenians beginning with their churches and ancient heritage sites,” wrote Elyse Semerdjian, a professor of Middle Eastern history at Whitman College, on Twitter.

In Azerbaijan, meanwhile, there has been near silence around the news. Pro-government media, which in comparable cases often actively publicizes plans announced by the government, barely covered the announcement or responses to criticism of it. Commentators and activists, pro-government or otherwise, devoted little attention to it.

A rare exception was Javid Agha, a social media commentator who researches Caucasian Albanian heritage in Azerbaijan, speculated that the plan may have been motivated by corruption, which is endemic in Azerbaijan.

“There is no logic behind it. No tourist will come to see barren churches, Azerbaijanis won’t care about it, nobody will applaud the government for it from outside. Just another excuse to write some checks,” Agha tweeted.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/02/08/azerbaijan-walks-back-plans-to-erase-armenian-traces-from-churches-a76306