The Endangered Christian Armenian Heritage of Artsakh
Channel: RAA Armenia
Date: 2023-04-19

The film is based on the book 
“The Endangered Christian Armenian Heritage of Artsakh”
Author Raffi Kortoshian
Edited by Pargev Frankian
Read by Garegin Ozanian

Culture binds people together with shared values, beliefs, religion and customs. It allows them to identify each other with a similar mindset. Cultural heritage created jointly can provide a common sense of unity and belonging within a group, allowing its members to better understand the previous generations and the common history with which they move towards a future to be built together.
But authorities of Azerbaijan who could not reconcile themselves to the loss of Artsakh started the widespread destruction of Armenian monuments, particularly Christian ones.
There is substantial amount of evidence revealing the fact that during the period between May 1994 and September 2020, the destruction of Armenian monuments, especially religious and funerary ones, was carried out within a state policy of Azerbaijan, in some cases, with the involvement of the military forces of the country.
Since 1991, several hundred Armenian churches and monasteries have been destroyed by the authorities of Azerbaijan. Hundreds of medieval cemeteries with thousands of cross-stones and gravestones have been demolished. The historical Armenian inscriptions of many churches have been scraped off to present them as “Caucasian Albanian” monuments. It is important to note that even monuments situated far from active military zones have suffered serious damage or complete destruction. Based on these facts, the decision of the International Court of Justice was made on 7 December 2021.
Regarding the destruction of Armenian heritage, special mention should be made of the monuments located in the Autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan: the centuries-old Christian Armenian heritage of this region has been completely destroyed during the last twenty-five years. This has been firmly stated in the resolution adopted by the European Parliament on 10 March 2022
Unfortunately, the same policy of destroying Armenian monuments is being carried out in those territories of the unrecognized Artsakh Republic which came under the control of Azerbaijan in the aftermath of the 44-day war of 2020. There is a significant amount of evidence confirming that the monuments built by Armenians in the last 30 years are now being destroyed. Armenian inscriptions are being removed from the walls of churches in order to present them as “Caucasian Albanian” monuments. Several other churches have simply been blown up or desecrated.
Numerous videos taken after September 2020 prove the annihilation of Armenian monuments.
To justify the destruction of Armenian cross-stones, Anar Kerimov, the Minister of Culture of Azerbaijan, falsely claimed that Armenians had placed fake khachkars everywhere to “Armenianise” monuments. He went so far as to present fake evidence to “substantiate” his allegation, but it proved to be just falsification of historical facts. On 23 November 2020, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Culture posted some images of Shahbulagh Fortress in Aghdam, claiming that it “was subject to alteration, namely cross was installed in the wall” during “Armenian occupation.” In order to “prove” the so-called alteration, the Minister posted another photo showing a tower—allegedly that of Shahbulagh Fortress—with a cross in its wall. However, even a casual examination reveals that this is just false propaganda as the photo with the cross shows not Shahbulagh Fortress in Aghdam, but another one located in the Georgian city of Akhaltsikhe, within about 600 km.
To justify the policy of the destruction of Armenian church inscriptions, the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared, on 16 March 2021, that the 17th-century construction inscription of the monastery of Tsaghkavank, in Hadrut District, was fake and should be removed. It should be noted, however, that this inscription was published in various books and articles in the 19th century, decades before the foundation of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
So how to stop this process? Thanks to Raphael Lemkin, a clear distinction was made between genocide and other atrocities under international law, which led to the adoption of new international rules through the 1948 UN Genocide Convention to prevent this crime. These rules also help us distinguish between acts of vandalism and the systematic destruction of the cultural heritage of an entire nation. The bottom line is that it is an imperative to revive Lemkin’s clear vision and suggestion, made at the Conference for Unification of Criminal Law (Madrid in 1933), about the crime of the “destruction of cultural and artistic works of racial, religious, or social collectivities.”