Azerbaijan is continuing to destroy Armenian cultural structures, churches, and historic monuments in occupied Artsakh. Since the 44-day war in 2020, this criminal practice became more rampant.
Separate pieces of Armenian historical and cultural heritage in Artsakh have also been destroyed by Azerbaijani vandals in recent times, a recent report referenced by Armeprss on Friday revealed.
There are destroyed and desecrated Armenian churches and monuments in all regions of Artsakh. Among them are the St. Ghazanchetsots Church and the Green Church in Shushi, the St. Sargis Church—which was completely destroyed—in Mokhrenis village of Hadrut region, while the St. Harutyun Church in Berdzor was turned into a mosque.
These atrocities of the Azerbaijanis are conditioned by the fact that there is a clear instruction from the Azerbaijani leadership to destroy and erase everything that is Armenian. And if it is not possible to destroy the most important Armenian monuments in broad daylight, they have been appropriated as non-Armenian.
In fact, this is a continuation of the same Azerbaijani policy, the goal of which was to erase all Armenian traces in the territories under their control, just as they once did in Nakhichevan, where today there is not a single Armenian church, historical and cultural monument, or Armenian inscription left.
One of the most striking cases of Azerbaijani vandalism is in the Martakert region’s Vankasar church, which is located on the road from occupied Stepanakert to Martakert. The “Experience Azerbaijan” account posted a video on X, showing how the cross on the dome is removed from this church.
The Azerbaijani authorities also have demolished another six acres of residential buildings in Stepanakert, adjacent to six historical quarters of Artsakh, which were destroyed earlier, the Secretary of the State Council for Protection of Cultural Heritage of Occupied Artsakh Sergey Shakhverdyan reported last week.
“Thus, about 21 acres in the center of the Artsakh capital were demolished from October to November. Earlier, 8.6 acres adjacent to the university and one acre of residential buildings adjacent to the Hotel Europe were leveled,” Shakhverdyan said.
“We should recall that the first demolitions of public buildings were recorded in the spring when the Azerbaijani administration demolished the Artsakh Parliament building, the building of the Union of Veterans and the Armenia Hotel in Renaissance Square,” Shakhverdyan added.
“It is evident that such obvious violations of the rulings of the International Criminal Court are possible only if Azerbaijan is confident of impunity. This confidence is confirmed by the absence of any public reaction on the part of the Republic of Armenia,” Shakhverdyan noted.
Yorumlar kapatıldı.