World’s largest body of scientists confirms destruction of Armenian khachkars in Nakhijevan

The world’s largest body of scientists, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, just released satellite image comparison and analysis confirming the complete destruction of the ancient Djulfa cemetery, located in an historic Armenian exclave currently occupied by Azerbaijan, Asbarez reported.

”A high-resolution satellite image of a medieval Armenian cemetery in Azerbaijan taken in September 2003 shows hundreds of khachkars, intricate 15th and 16th century burial monuments. In a satellite image from May 2009, however, the khachkars are missing, suggesting that they were either destroyed or removed. A comparison of the images by analysts from the AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project found evidence of significant destruction and changes in the grade of the cemetery’s terrain. The image from September 2003 shows rocky and uneven terrain, as well as shadows cast by the khachkars, while the May 2009 image shows a much flatter landscape and the khachkars’ absence,” the AAAS conclusion reads.

Five years ago this month, more than 100 uniformed Azerbaijanis were caught on tape destroying the burial monuments of the medieval Djulfa cemetery, founded in the Armenian province of Nakhichevan during the 9th century and thriving as late as the early 1600s. The soldiers were smashing Armenian monuments with sledgehammers, using a crane to remove some of the largest monuments from the ground, breaking the stones into small pieces, and dumping them into the River Araxes by a large truck.

Overall, an estimated 3,000 khachkars, or intricately carved burial monuments, the craftsmanship of which is a UNESCO Intangible Heritage Tradition, were erased from the face of the earth.

Azerbaijan’s President called the destruction report an “absolute lie,” and has maintained that official denial ever since.

Source:

Cultural Vandalism or Raping History?

Where is the civilized Europe? 


Where is UNESCO? 


Why does no one intervene?

This movie clip, dated December 14-16, 2005, shows how Azerbaijani 
soldiers, with heavy machinery, destroy the last evidence of
Armenian presence in Nakhichevan, the historical Armenian province which 
together with Nagorno Karabakh was given away to the neighbouring 
Azerbaijani Republic. 

Jugha's cemetry before destruction

As a result of the implemented Soviet policy, Nakhichevan was at last depleted 
of its entire Armenian population. The clip confirms firmly the fact that the organiser of this cultural genocide is none other than the Azerbaijani government. Obviously, Azerbaijan is firmly determined to prevent “another Karabakh” by erasing the slightest indication of Armenian existence in Nakhichevan. The living Armenians have since long time ago forced to leave the region, but apparently there is also a fear of the dead and buried Armenians and their cries beyond the grave.

Nakhichevan is an exclave which belongs to Azerbaijan but Armenia’s territory separates them apart. Nakhichevan borders, however, on Armenia, Turkey, and Iran. It was from this area that the Persian King Shah Abbas, during the Persian-Ottoman war, forcibly relocated about 150,000 Armenians year 1620 and resettled them in the outskirts of his capital, Isfahan.

The place for this barbarian action caught on tape is a cemetery with thousands of Khatchkars, “Cross stones”, invaluable historical and cultural monuments from the period between 15th and 16th centuries.

Several Armenian organisations and authorities, among other the Foreign Ministry, have handed in official protests to UNESCO and other international organisation, but also to the US embassy in Azerbaijan.

This action makes one to recall the recent desecrations of Jewish cemeteries in different European cities. But unlike the immediate media coverage and attention given to these criminal acts it seems that no one bothers to care about this last act of cleansing the last evidence of Armenians in Nakhichevan.

Will the world and Europe just stand by and watch while this rape of history takes place?




Here  you can see the movie clips

Jugha on GHN

Now you can find materials on  popular web site 


http://globalheritagefund.org/ (Global Heritage Network), 


which  represents  Cultural Genocide in Jugha

The Jugha cemetery was a unique collection of several thousand carved stone crosses (khachkars) on Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran. But...


Between 10-16 December 2005 over a hundred uniformed men destroyed the Djulfa cemetery using sledgehammers, cranes, and trucks.


An armenian medieval  cemetery regarded as one of the wonders of the Caucasus has been 


erased from the Earth in an act of cultural vandalism likened to the Taleban blowing up the 


Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan in 2001.

  Destruction of the statue by Taliban  
One of the two Buddahs of Bamiyan in 1976                                                                                                    After it was destroyed    




                                       

Armenian medieval khachkars. Jugha cemetry                                                                                                 December 2005. Destroying  of Armenian khachkars by azeri soldiers

  

Jugha's cross-stones and Buddha's statue don't exist anymore because of CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Destruction of the Armenian Cemetery at Djulfa

December 2005

Intangible Cultural Heritage committee completes examination of nominations for UNESCO Lists

With the inscription of the Armenian cross-stones art. Symbolism and craftsmanship of Khachkars, presented by Armenia, the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage today finished the examination of 47 nominations presented by 29 countries for inscription on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It now includes 213 inscribed elements.

Khachkars are outdoor steles carved from stone by craftspeople in Armenia and communities in the Armenian diaspora. They act as a focal point for worship, as memorial stones and as relics facilitating communication between the secular and divine. Khachkars reach 1.5 metres in height, and have an ornamentally carved cross in the middle, resting on the symbol of a sun or wheel of eternity, accompanied by vegetative-geometric motifs, carvings of saints and animals. Khachkars are created usually using local stone and carved using chisel, die, sharp pens and hammers. The carvings are then ground using fine sand. Small breaks and rough surfaces are eliminated by plaster of clay or lime, and then painted. Once finished, the Khachkar is erected during a small religious ceremony. After being blessed and anointed, the Khachkar is believed to possess holy powers and can provide help, protection, victory, long life, remembrance and mediation towards salvation of the soul. Among more than 50,000 Khachkars in Armenia, each has its own pattern, and no two are alike. Khachkar craftsmanship is transmitted through families or from master to apprentice, teaching the traditional methods and patterns, while encouraging regional distinctiveness and individual improvisation.

As for the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding, four new elements have been added for a total of 16.

Source:

 Use Correct Maps of Armenia! (Artsakh = Armenia)

ST. SARGIS MONASTERY OF GAG CASTLE: THE NEXT VICTIM OF THE WIDE-SPREAD ANNIHILATION OF "ALBANIAN" MONUMENTS

 Years ago the Azerbaijani researchers made every possible endeavour to present the Armenian historical monuments located on the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan as Albanian ones: between the 1970s and 80's, Buniatov, Geyushev, Akhundov, Neymatova, Mammadova and other "scholars" published a great number of books and articles ascribing the inseparable parts of Armenian culture such as Gandzasar, Dadivank, Amaras, the monasteries of St. Yeghishe the Apostle, Targmanchats (of the Holy Translators), Khachakap District, Northern Artsakh, Jugha Cemetery with its several thousands of cross-stones and even St. Sargis of Gag Castle to the Albanian people. 
    Indeed, the Armenians are well-aware of the fact that these scientific falsifications pursue a purely political objective: by attributing the Christian monuments that can hardly be anyhow connected with the Azeris' stock-breeding nomadic forefathers to the Albanians, i.e. their alleged ancestors, the aforementioned scholars aim at declaring the Azerbaijani people heir to this cultural legacy. Thus, with a single stroke of the pen, a good number of Armenian churches and tens of thousands of cross-stones turned into Albanian kilises' ('churches' in Turkish) and "khachdashes" ('cross-stones' in Turkish). Nowadays the Azeris have adopted another policy: they no longer make any attempts to attribute the Armenian cultural monuments to the Albanians: instead, they are busy with annihilating the very monuments once declared Albanian. 
    With the outbreak of Artsakh's Liberation Struggle, the Azerbaijani authorities drastically changed their policy on the Armenian historical monuments: disguising their nature of vandals and barbarians, they commenced demolishing the centuries-old monuments of Armenian culture throughout the Republic of Azerbaijan. We are, unfortunately, unable to determine the actual extent of destruction: we get information only about those monuments that are somehow seen from the Armenian side of the border due to their position, while the fate of all those located far from the frontier zones remains uncertain. 
   In the recent few years, the Armenian press has periodically written about the continual demolition of the historical cemetery of Jugha that began in 1998. Despite the repeated appeals, however, the annihilation of the necropolis with its over 3,000 standing cross-stones was not prevented: moreover, it was consigned to final obliteration in 2002. 
    Within a few years, the unique monument complex the Armenians had created with the sweat of their brow in their historical homeland was actually levelled with the ground, that being perpetrated in broad daylight, before the entire civilized world. We learnt about what had been committed only thanks to the fact that the cemetery was situated on the left bank of the river Araks, thus being clearly seen from the opposite, i.e. Iranian bank of the river. 
    Yes, the famous cemetery of Jugha was totally annihilated, but the Azeri vandals who are armed with bulldozers still have too much "work" to do since the Armenian land where they once penetrated abounds in other monuments built throughout many centuries. 
    In fact, at present we are doomed to witness the destruction of our own culture since the Azeri Turks are diligently performing the only role they have had ever since they made themselves comfortable in our historical homeland, i.e. demolition... Faithful to their mission, the Turks are at present "working" in St. Sargis Monastery of Gag Castle in the same spirit. 

Yes...It's GENOCIDE

http://anca.org/yesitsgenocide

Cultural Genocide

Acts and measures undertaken to destroy any nations’ or ethnic groups’ culture is called, ‘cultural genocide’. The word ‘Genocide’ coined by Raphael Lemkin, does not only refer to the physical extermination of a national or religious group, but also its national, spiritual and cultural destruction. The concept of a cultural genocide has not yet been accepted into the 1948 UN Convention on the prevention and punishment of the crime of Genocide. 

Many proven facts concomitant with the massacres and deportation are witness to the fact that the Young Turk government premeditated and planed a systematic method aiming to destroy the material testimonies of the Armenian civilization. Realizing the role of the church and Christian faith within the Armenian nation, they knowingly massacred Armenian clergymen, destroyed churches, monasteries and other properties of church, alongwith thousands of medieval handwritten illuminated manuscripts. 

An Arab eye witnesses to the Armenian Genocide, Fayez el Husseyn, writes in his memoirs