Destruction of Armenian heritage in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan has been a member of Unesco since June 1992. Moreover, the EU has had a partnership and cooperation agreement with Azerbaijan since 1999. In Julfa, in the province of Nakhchivan (Yernjak district) is a centuries-old Armenian cemetery. Even though the province has been annexed by Azerbaijan, Armenians have lived there for centuries and are also buried there. In November 1998 the Azerbaijani authorities began destroying the cemetery. Unesco was able to halt this vandalism only temporarily. In 2005 the cemetery was virtually destroyed. Historically important headstones were broken up manually and mechanically and used as building material. At the beginning of March 2006 the whole area became a military site. Changing the use of a former cemetery containing thousands of human remains shows a lack of moral scruple by the Azerbaijani authorities. Is the Commission aware of these facts? Is the Commission considering taking action in the framework of the cooperation agreement and asking for an explanation in Azerbaijan? Is the Commission willing to urge the Azerbaijani authorities to restore this heritage site (for example by reopening the site to the public and placing a memorial)? What action can and will be taken so that such incidents do not happen again in the future? Parliamentary questions 29 April 2010 WRITTEN QUESTION by Bart Staes (Verts/ALE) to the Commission Source

The Political Consequences of the Taliban-like Actions of the Azerbaijani Authorities

A country can gain entry to UNESCO and ICOMOS

only if it complies with the laws and principles

established in their statutes. Is a member country not

to be expelled from these organizations if it later

infringes its commitments?

Violating the 1948 UN Convention on Cultural

Heritage, Nakhijevan’s Azerbaijani authorities

demolished thousands of Armenian monuments

(churches, monasteries, cemeteries, etc.) in peaceful

times, with the complicity of their army.

Following the example of the Talibans who

destroyed the statues of Buddha in Bamian,

Afghanistan, Azerbaijan is obliterating Nakhijevan’s

centuries-old historical monuments, thus hoping

to prove that the region was never an

Armenian territory...

The destruction of Nakhijevan’s Armenian

cultural heritage at state level is a crime not

only against the Armenian nation but against all

civilization. The annihilation of such monuments

as the cemetery of Julfa is defilement of

sacred tenets of all religions. Does a country

having committed such vile desecration have

any right to remain a member of the Council of

Europe?

Source