The thousand-year-old heritage of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) is in danger, an article published on Le Figaro newspaper says, referencing a recent report from the European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ).
The report, titled “The Systematic Erasure of Armenian Christian Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh”, details the “cultural erasure” carried out by Baku in Karabakh – now under its control – by destroying churches, removing crosses and vandalizing cemeteries.
seeks to bring attention to the “malicious destruction and revisionism of Armenian Christian heritage, evaluate the international response to date, and provide recommendations to combat the cultural erasure occurring in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
The article in Le Figaro goes to list some of the most prominent losses of Armenian cultural heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh. Among them, the 18th-century Church of Saint Sargis in Hadrut, destroyed in 2022, its land cleared to erect a new building. On April 4, 2024, the Church of Saint John the Baptist in Shushi, damaged by Azerbaijani bombs in 2020, was razed. Built in 1847, the “green chapel” was completely wiped off the map, according to the NGO Caucasus Heritage Watch, which relies in particular on images provided by Cornell University.
Another form of erasure is the replacement of churches with Muslim places of worship. Surb Hambardzum Church in Berdzor, which the Azerbaijan’s “Public Organization for the Protection of Monuments” suggested be transformed into a mosque in 2022, was, no doubt for this purpose, demolished.
Some churches have been specifically deprived of their Christian emblems. The Shushi Cathedral, according to images posted on Azerbaijani social media, had its angels removed from its portal, its domes and its cross. In the Surb Sargis church in a small village built in the 13th century, the Azerbaijani government, under the pretext of “renovation” work, destroyed religious symbols. Two historic polished stone slabs, decorated with Christian artwork and medieval Armenian inscriptions, were broken, ECLJ reports. According to local sources, the St. John the Mother of God Cathedral, built and consecrated in 2019, was also vandalized by Azerbaijanis. The cross that overlooked the Vankasar church in Tigranakert, dating from the 7th century, was also removed.
Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.
PANARMENIAN.NET
