Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan
Encyclopedia
Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan refers to the systematic campaign beginning in 1998 and ending in December 2005 of the government of Azerbaijan
to completely demolish the cemetery of medieval Armenian khachkar
s (cross stones) near the town of Julfa
(known as Jugha in Armenian), Nakhchivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan. Claims by Armenians that Azerbaijan was undertaking a systematic campaign to destroy and remove the monuments first arose in late 1998 and those charges were renewed in 2002 and 2005.
Numerous appeals were filed by both Armenian and international organizations, condemning the Azerbaijani government and calling on it to desist from such activity. In 2006, Azerbaijan barred European Parliament
members from investigating the claims, charging them with a "biased and hysterical approach" to the issue and stating that it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
who visited the area reported that no visible traces of the cemetery remained. In the same year, photographs taken from Iran showed that the cemetery site has been turned into a military firing range.
After studying and comparing satellite photos of Julfa taken in 2003 and 2009, in December 2010 the American Association for the Advancement of Science
came to the conclusion that the cemetery has been demolished and leveled.
. Armenia's territory separates it from the rest of Azerbaijan. The exclave also borders Turkey
and Iran
. Lying near the Araks River
as a part of the historical province of Syunik'
in heart of the Armenian plateau
, Jugha gradually grew from a village to a city during the late medieval period. In the sixteenth century, it boasted a population of 20-40,000 Armenians who were largely occupied with trade and craftsmanship. The oldest khachkars found at the cemetery at Jugha, located in the western part of the city, dated to the ninth to tenth centuries but their construction, as well as that of other elaborately decorated grave markers, continued until 1605, the year when Shah Abbas I of Safavid Persia instituted a policy of scorched earth
and ordered the town destroyed and all its inhabitants removed.
In addition to the thousands of khachkars, Armenians also erected numerous tombstones in the form of ram
s which were intricately decorated with Christian
motifs and engravings. According to the French traveler Alexandre de Rhodes, the cemetery still had 10,000 well-preserved khachkars when he visited Jugha in 1648. However, many khachkars were destroyed from this period onward to the point that only 5,000 were counted standing in 1903–1904.
. Several years earlier, Armenia had supported the Armenians of Karabakh to fight for their independence in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
in Azerbaijan, in the Nagorno-Karabakh War
. The war concluded in 1994 when a cease fire was signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh established the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
, an internationally unrecognized but de facto
independent state. This resulted in Azerbaijan losing fourteen percent of its territory, including lands falling outside of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the end of the war, enmity against Armenians in Azerbaijan has built up. According to Sarah Pickman of the Archaeological Institute of America
, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenians has "played a part in this attempt to eradicate the historical Armenian presence in Nakhchivan."
In 1998, Azerbaijan dismissed Armenia's claims that the khachkars were being destroyed. Arpiayr Petrosyan, a member of the organization Armenian Architecture in Iran, had initially pressed the claims after having witnessed and filmed bulldozers destroying the monuments.
Reacting to the claims, the government of Iran
expressed concern over the destruction of the monuments and filed a protest with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic's government (NAR). Hasan Zeynalov, the permanent representative of the NAR in Baku
, stated that the Armenian allegation was "another dirty lie of the Armenians." The government of Azerbaijan did not respond directly to the accusations but did state that "vandalism is not in the spirit of Azerbaijan." Armenia's claims provoked international scrutiny that, according to Armenian Minister of Culture Gagik Gyurdjian, helped to temporarily stop the destruction.
Armenian archaeologists and experts on the khachkars in Nakhchivan stated that when they first visited the region in 1987, prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union
, the monuments had stood intact and the region itself had as many as "27,000 monasteries, churches, khachkars, tombstones" among other cultural artifacts. By 1998, the number of khachkars was reduced to 2,700.
The old Cemetery of Julfa is known to specialists to have housed as many as 10,000 of these carved khachkar headstones, up to 2,000 of which were still intact after an earlier outbreak of vandalism on the same site in 2002. Eyewitness accounts of the ongoing demolition describe an organized operation. In December 2005, Iranian Armenians documented more video evidence across the Araks river
, which partially demarcates the border between Nakhchivan and Iran, stating that it showed Azeri troops had finished the destruction of the remaining khachkars by using sledgehammers and axes.
Azerbaijan's government has faced a flurry of condemnation since the charges were first revealed. When the claims were first brought up in 1998, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) ordered that the destruction of the monuments in Julfa cease. The complaints also brought forward similar appeals to end the activity by the International Council on Monuments and Sites
(ICOMOS).
In reaction to the charges brought forward by Armenia and international organizations, Azerbaijan has asserted, falsely, that Armenians had never existed in those territories. In December 2005, Zeynalov stated in a BBC interview that Armenians "never lived in Nakhchivan, which has been Azerbaijani land from time immemorial, and that's why there are no Armenian cemeteries and monuments and have never been any." Azerbaijan instead contends that the monuments were not of Armenian, but of Caucasian Albanian, origin.
In regard to the destruction, according to the Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States, Hafiz Pashayev, the videos and photographs that were introduced did not show the identity of the people nor display what they are actually destroying. Instead, the ambassador asserts that the Armenian side started a propaganda campaign against Azerbaijan to draw attention away from the alleged destruction of Azerbaijani monuments in Armenia. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev
also denied the charges, calling them "a lie and a provocation."
In 2006, European parliament
ary members protested to the Azerbaijani government when they were barred from inspecting the cemetery. Hannes Swoboda
, an Austria
n socialist MEP and committee member who was denied access to the region, commented that "If they do not allow us to go, we have a clear hint that something bad has happened. If something is hidden we want to ask why. It can only be because some of the allegations are true." Doctor Charles Tannock
, a conservative member of the European Parliament for Greater London
, and others echoed those sentiments and compared the destruction to the Buddha statues
destroyed by the Taliban in Bamyan, Afghanistan
in 2001. He cited in a speech a British architect, Steven Sim, an expert of the region, who attested that the video footage shot from the Iranian border was genuine.
Azerbaijan barred the European Parliament because it said it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. "We think that if a comprehensive approach is taken to the problems that have been raised," said Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizade, "it will be possible to study Christian monuments on the territory of Azerbaijan, including in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic."
After several more postponed visits, a renewed attempt was planned by PACE inspectors for August 29 - September 6, 2007, led by British MP Edward O'Hara. As well as Nakhchivan, the delegation would visit Baku, Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Nagorno Karabakh. The inspectors planned to visit Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia, and had arranged transport to facilitate this. However, on August 28, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE released a demand that the inspectors must enter Nagorno Karabakh via Azerbaijan. On August 29, PACE Secretary General Mateo Sorinas announced that the visit had to be canceled because of the difficulty in accessing Nagorno-Karabagh using the route required by Azerbaijan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Armenia issued a statement saying that Azerbaijan had stopped the visit "due solely to their intent to veil the demolition of Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan."
In April 2011, the newly-appointed United States ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza
visited Nakhchivan but was inexplicably refused access to Julfa by Azerbaijani authorities. Bryza had intended to investigate the cemetery but instead was told by government authorities that they would help facilitate a new trip in the coming months. In a statement released by the US embassy in Baku, Bryza stated that "As I said at the time the cemetery destruction was reported, the desecration of cultural sites – especially a cemetery – is a tragedy, which we deplore, regardless of where it happens."
In response to the statement, Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), called the ambassador's comments "Far too little, five years too late" and criticized him for not speaking out more forcefully and earlier against the destruction while he was still United States Deputy Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs in 2006.
, an anthropologist and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago
, called the removal of the khachkars "a shameful episode in humanity's relation to its past, a deplorable act on the part of the government of Azerbaijan which requires both explanation and repair." Smith and other scholars, as well as several United States Senators, signed a letter to UNESCO and other organizations condemning Azerbaijan's government.
(AAAS) released an analysis of high-resolution satellite photographs of the Julfa cemetery site taken in 2003 and 2009. The AAAS concluded that the satellite imagery was consistent with the reports from observers on the ground, that "significant destruction and changes in the grade
of the terrain" had occurred between 2003 and 2009, and that the cemetery area was "likely destroyed and later leveled by earth-moving equipment."
. Ջուղա (Jugha). Yerevan: Sovetakan Grogh, 1984.
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
to completely demolish the cemetery of medieval Armenian khachkar
Khachkar
A khachkar or khatchkar is a carved, cross-bearing, memorial stele covered with rosettes and other botanical motifs. Khachkars are characteristic of Medieval Christian Armenian art found in Armenia.-Description:...
s (cross stones) near the town of Julfa
Julfa, Azerbaijan (town)
Julfa , formerly Jugha and also rendered as Djulfa, Dzhul’fa, Jolfa, Dzhulfa, Džulfa, Jolfā, Jolfā-ye Nakhjavān , is the administrative capital of the Julfa Rayon administrative region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan.Julfa is separated by the Araks River from its namesake, the...
(known as Jugha in Armenian), Nakhchivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan. Claims by Armenians that Azerbaijan was undertaking a systematic campaign to destroy and remove the monuments first arose in late 1998 and those charges were renewed in 2002 and 2005.
Numerous appeals were filed by both Armenian and international organizations, condemning the Azerbaijani government and calling on it to desist from such activity. In 2006, Azerbaijan barred European Parliament
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
members from investigating the claims, charging them with a "biased and hysterical approach" to the issue and stating that it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Institute for War and Peace Reporting
Institute for War & Peace Reporting is an international media development charity, established in 1991. It runs major programmes in Afghanistan, the Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, Iraq, the Balkans, Congo DRC, Tunisia and Uganda...
who visited the area reported that no visible traces of the cemetery remained. In the same year, photographs taken from Iran showed that the cemetery site has been turned into a military firing range.
After studying and comparing satellite photos of Julfa taken in 2003 and 2009, in December 2010 the American Association for the Advancement of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
came to the conclusion that the cemetery has been demolished and leveled.
Background
Nakhchivan is an exclave which belongs to AzerbaijanAzerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
. Armenia's territory separates it from the rest of Azerbaijan. The exclave also borders Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
. Lying near the Araks River
Araks River
The Aras , is a river located in and along the countries of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Its total length is...
as a part of the historical province of Syunik'
Syunik
Syunik is the southernmost province of Armenia. It borders the Vayots Dzor marz to the north, Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan exclave to the west, Karabakh to the east, and Iran to the south. Its capital is Kapan. Other important cities and towns include Goris, Sisian, Meghri, Agarak, and Dastakert...
in heart of the Armenian plateau
Armenian Highland
The Armenian Highland is the central-most and highest of three land-locked plateaus that together form the northern sector of the Middle East...
, Jugha gradually grew from a village to a city during the late medieval period. In the sixteenth century, it boasted a population of 20-40,000 Armenians who were largely occupied with trade and craftsmanship. The oldest khachkars found at the cemetery at Jugha, located in the western part of the city, dated to the ninth to tenth centuries but their construction, as well as that of other elaborately decorated grave markers, continued until 1605, the year when Shah Abbas I of Safavid Persia instituted a policy of scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
and ordered the town destroyed and all its inhabitants removed.
In addition to the thousands of khachkars, Armenians also erected numerous tombstones in the form of ram
Domestic sheep
Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
s which were intricately decorated with Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
motifs and engravings. According to the French traveler Alexandre de Rhodes, the cemetery still had 10,000 well-preserved khachkars when he visited Jugha in 1648. However, many khachkars were destroyed from this period onward to the point that only 5,000 were counted standing in 1903–1904.
Background
Armenia first brought up charges against the Azerbaijani government for destroying khachkars in 1998 in the town of JulfaJulfa, Azerbaijan (town)
Julfa , formerly Jugha and also rendered as Djulfa, Dzhul’fa, Jolfa, Dzhulfa, Džulfa, Jolfā, Jolfā-ye Nakhjavān , is the administrative capital of the Julfa Rayon administrative region of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic in Azerbaijan.Julfa is separated by the Araks River from its namesake, the...
. Several years earlier, Armenia had supported the Armenians of Karabakh to fight for their independence in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh
Nagorno-Karabakh is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, lying between Lower Karabakh and Zangezur and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains...
in Azerbaijan, in the Nagorno-Karabakh War
Nagorno-Karabakh War
The Nagorno-Karabakh War was an armed conflict that took place from February 1988 to May 1994, in the small enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in southwestern Azerbaijan, between the majority ethnic Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh backed by the Republic of Armenia, and the Republic of Azerbaijan...
. The war concluded in 1994 when a cease fire was signed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh established the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic , or Artsakh Republic is a de facto independent republic located in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia...
, an internationally unrecognized but de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
independent state. This resulted in Azerbaijan losing fourteen percent of its territory, including lands falling outside of Nagorno-Karabakh. Since the end of the war, enmity against Armenians in Azerbaijan has built up. According to Sarah Pickman of the Archaeological Institute of America
Archaeological Institute of America
The Archaeological Institute of America is a North American nonprofit organization devoted to the promotion of public interest in archaeology, and the preservation of archaeological sites. It has offices on the campus of Boston University and in New York City.The institute was founded in 1879,...
, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenians has "played a part in this attempt to eradicate the historical Armenian presence in Nakhchivan."
In 1998, Azerbaijan dismissed Armenia's claims that the khachkars were being destroyed. Arpiayr Petrosyan, a member of the organization Armenian Architecture in Iran, had initially pressed the claims after having witnessed and filmed bulldozers destroying the monuments.
Reacting to the claims, the government of Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
expressed concern over the destruction of the monuments and filed a protest with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic's government (NAR). Hasan Zeynalov, the permanent representative of the NAR in Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
, stated that the Armenian allegation was "another dirty lie of the Armenians." The government of Azerbaijan did not respond directly to the accusations but did state that "vandalism is not in the spirit of Azerbaijan." Armenia's claims provoked international scrutiny that, according to Armenian Minister of Culture Gagik Gyurdjian, helped to temporarily stop the destruction.
Armenian archaeologists and experts on the khachkars in Nakhchivan stated that when they first visited the region in 1987, prior to the breakup of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, the monuments had stood intact and the region itself had as many as "27,000 monasteries, churches, khachkars, tombstones" among other cultural artifacts. By 1998, the number of khachkars was reduced to 2,700.
Renewed claims in 2003
In 2003, Armenians renewed their protests claiming that Azerbaijan had restarted the destruction of the monuments. On December 4, 2002, Armenian historians and archaeologists met and filed a formal complaint and appealed to international organizations to investigate their claims.The old Cemetery of Julfa is known to specialists to have housed as many as 10,000 of these carved khachkar headstones, up to 2,000 of which were still intact after an earlier outbreak of vandalism on the same site in 2002. Eyewitness accounts of the ongoing demolition describe an organized operation. In December 2005, Iranian Armenians documented more video evidence across the Araks river
Araks River
The Aras , is a river located in and along the countries of Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Iran. Its total length is...
, which partially demarcates the border between Nakhchivan and Iran, stating that it showed Azeri troops had finished the destruction of the remaining khachkars by using sledgehammers and axes.
International response
International Council on Monuments and Sites
The International Council on Monuments and Sites is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world...
(ICOMOS).
Azerbaijan
In reaction to the charges brought forward by Armenia and international organizations, Azerbaijan has asserted, falsely, that Armenians had never existed in those territories. In December 2005, Zeynalov stated in a BBC interview that Armenians "never lived in Nakhchivan, which has been Azerbaijani land from time immemorial, and that's why there are no Armenian cemeteries and monuments and have never been any." Azerbaijan instead contends that the monuments were not of Armenian, but of Caucasian Albanian, origin.In regard to the destruction, according to the Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States, Hafiz Pashayev, the videos and photographs that were introduced did not show the identity of the people nor display what they are actually destroying. Instead, the ambassador asserts that the Armenian side started a propaganda campaign against Azerbaijan to draw attention away from the alleged destruction of Azerbaijani monuments in Armenia. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev is the President of Azerbaijan since 2003. He also functions as the Chairman of the New Azerbaijan Party and the head of the National Olympic Committee...
also denied the charges, calling them "a lie and a provocation."
European Union
In 2006, European parliamentEuropean Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
ary members protested to the Azerbaijani government when they were barred from inspecting the cemetery. Hannes Swoboda
Hannes Swoboda
Hannes Swoboda aka Johannes Swoboda is an Austrian social democratic politician. He has been a Member of the European Parliament since 1996...
, an Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n socialist MEP and committee member who was denied access to the region, commented that "If they do not allow us to go, we have a clear hint that something bad has happened. If something is hidden we want to ask why. It can only be because some of the allegations are true." Doctor Charles Tannock
Charles Tannock
Dr Timothy Charles Ayrton Tannock is a British politician, psychiatrist, and Member of the European Parliament for London for the Conservative Party. He was first elected to the European Parliament in 1999...
, a conservative member of the European Parliament for Greater London
Greater London
Greater London is the top-level administrative division of England covering London. It was created in 1965 and spans the City of London, including Middle Temple and Inner Temple, and the 32 London boroughs. This territory is coterminate with the London Government Office Region and the London...
, and others echoed those sentiments and compared the destruction to the Buddha statues
Buddhas of Bamyan
The Buddhas of Bamiyan were two 6th century monumental statues of standing buddhas carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley in the Hazarajat region of central Afghanistan, situated northwest of Kabul at an altitude of 2,500 meters...
destroyed by the Taliban in Bamyan, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
in 2001. He cited in a speech a British architect, Steven Sim, an expert of the region, who attested that the video footage shot from the Iranian border was genuine.
Azerbaijan barred the European Parliament because it said it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. "We think that if a comprehensive approach is taken to the problems that have been raised," said Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizade, "it will be possible to study Christian monuments on the territory of Azerbaijan, including in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic."
After several more postponed visits, a renewed attempt was planned by PACE inspectors for August 29 - September 6, 2007, led by British MP Edward O'Hara. As well as Nakhchivan, the delegation would visit Baku, Yerevan, Tbilisi, and Nagorno Karabakh. The inspectors planned to visit Nagorno-Karabakh via Armenia, and had arranged transport to facilitate this. However, on August 28, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE released a demand that the inspectors must enter Nagorno Karabakh via Azerbaijan. On August 29, PACE Secretary General Mateo Sorinas announced that the visit had to be canceled because of the difficulty in accessing Nagorno-Karabagh using the route required by Azerbaijan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Armenia issued a statement saying that Azerbaijan had stopped the visit "due solely to their intent to veil the demolition of Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan."
United States
In April 2011, the newly-appointed United States ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew BryzaMatthew Bryza
Matthew James Bryza is a United States diplomat. Currently serves as the United States Ambassador to Azerbaijan.-Education:...
visited Nakhchivan but was inexplicably refused access to Julfa by Azerbaijani authorities. Bryza had intended to investigate the cemetery but instead was told by government authorities that they would help facilitate a new trip in the coming months. In a statement released by the US embassy in Baku, Bryza stated that "As I said at the time the cemetery destruction was reported, the desecration of cultural sites – especially a cemetery – is a tragedy, which we deplore, regardless of where it happens."
In response to the statement, Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), called the ambassador's comments "Far too little, five years too late" and criticized him for not speaking out more forcefully and earlier against the destruction while he was still United States Deputy Secretary of State
United States Deputy Secretary of State
The Deputy Secretary of State of the United States is the chief assistant to the Secretary of State. If the Secretary of State resigns or dies, the Deputy Secretary of State becomes Acting Secretary of State until the President nominates and the Senate confirms a replacement. The position was...
for European and Eurasian Affairs in 2006.
Other
Numerous non-Armenian scholars condemned the destruction and urged the Azerbaijan government to give a more complete account of its activities in the region. Adam T. SmithAdam T. Smith
Adam T. Smith is an Professor, Department of Anthropology, Cornell University. He is also Faculty Associate in the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory and the Center for East European/Russian and Eurasian Studies, Co-Director The American-Armenian Project for the Archaeology and Geography of...
, an anthropologist and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, called the removal of the khachkars "a shameful episode in humanity's relation to its past, a deplorable act on the part of the government of Azerbaijan which requires both explanation and repair." Smith and other scholars, as well as several United States Senators, signed a letter to UNESCO and other organizations condemning Azerbaijan's government.
2010 AAAS analysis of satellite photos
As a response to Azerbaijan barring on-site investigation by outside groups, on December 8, 2010, the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
(AAAS) released an analysis of high-resolution satellite photographs of the Julfa cemetery site taken in 2003 and 2009. The AAAS concluded that the satellite imagery was consistent with the reports from observers on the ground, that "significant destruction and changes in the grade
Grad (angle)
The gradian is a unit of plane angle, equivalent to of a turn. It is also known as gon, grad, or grade . One grad equals of a degree or of a radian...
of the terrain" had occurred between 2003 and 2009, and that the cemetery area was "likely destroyed and later leveled by earth-moving equipment."
Further reading
Ayvazyan, ArgamArgam Aivazian
Argam Aivazian is an Armenian historian, journalist and researcher. Born in the village of Arinj, in the Nakhichevan ASSR, he is particularly known for his books and monographs about the Armenian culture and history of that region, and has written books about the towns of Hin Jugha and Agulis, as...
. Ջուղա (Jugha). Yerevan: Sovetakan Grogh, 1984.
- Baltrušaitis, JurgisJurgis Baltrušaitis (son)Jurgis Baltrušaitis was a Lithuanian art historian, art critic and a founder of comparative art research. He was the son of the poet and diplomat Jurgis Baltrušaitis. Most of his works were written in French, although he always stressed his Lithuanian origin...
and Dickran Kouymjian. "Julfa on the Arax and Its Funerary Monuments" in Études Arméniennes/Armenian Studies In Memoriam Haig Berberian. Lisbon: Galouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1986. - Maghakyan, Simon. "Sacred Stones Silenced in Azerbaijan." History TodayHistory TodayHistory Today is an illustrated history magazine. Published monthly in London since January 1951, it is the world's leading, and possibly oldest, history magazine. Its successful mission has always been to present serious and authoritative history to as wide a public as possible...
. Vol. 57, November 2007.
Photo galleries
- Partial Views of Jugha Cemetery, a photo gallery by Research on Armenian Architecture
Documentary films
- Julfa by the Research on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian Architecture, sometimes abbreviated to RAA, is an international non-governmental organization that monitors and studies Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic of Armenia, such as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere...
organization - The New Tears of Araxes
Other films
Satellite imagery
- Satellite Images provided by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
External links
- The Annihilation of the Armenian Cemetery in Jugha, a brochure by Research on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian ArchitectureResearch on Armenian Architecture, sometimes abbreviated to RAA, is an international non-governmental organization that monitors and studies Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic of Armenia, such as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere...
- Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum
- Destruction of the Armenian Cemetery at Djulfa by International Council on Monuments and SitesInternational Council on Monuments and SitesThe International Council on Monuments and Sites is a professional association that works for the conservation and protection of cultural heritage places around the world...
- Evidence of destruction in Turkey by Armenian National Committee of Australia
- Satellite Images Show Disappearance of Armenian Artifacts in Azerbaijan. AAAS press release.