Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan Totally Explained

Everything about Khachkar Destruction In Nakhchivan totally explained

Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan refers to documented accusations against Azerbaijan of embarking on a campaign beginning in 1998 and ending in December 2005 to completely demolish the cemetery of medieval Armenian khachkars near the town of Julfa, Nakhchivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan. Claims by Armenians that Azerbaijan was undertaking a systematic campaign to destroy and remove the monuments first arose in late 1998 and those charges were renewed in 2002 and 2005.
Numerous appeals were filed by both Armenian and international organizations, condemning the Azerbaijani government and calling on it to desist from such activity. In 2006, Azerbaijan barred European Parliament members from investigating the claims, charging them with a "biased and hysterical approach" to the issue and stating that it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well.

Background

Nakhchivan is an exclave which belongs to Azerbaijan, but Armenia's territory separates the two apart. The exclave also borders Turkey and Iran. It was from the Armenian plateau (which included Nakhchivan), that the Persian King Shah Abbas I forcibly relocated the entire population, which along with Muslims and Jews included between 75,000 and 300,000 Armenians from 1604 to 1605 and permanently resettled some of them in the outskirts of his capital, Isfahan. Much of the Armenian cultural heritage, including the khachkars which dated back to the 9th to 16th centuries, was left behind as nearly the region's whole population was moved.

Destruction

Initial claims

Armenia first brought up charges against the Azerbaijani government for destroying khachkars in 1998 in the town of Julfa. Several years earlier, Armenia had supported Armenian separatists fighting for their independence in the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, in the Nagorno-Karabakh War. The war concluded in 1994 with a cease fire that resulted in Azerbaijan losing 14% of its territory, including those outside of Nagorno-Karabakh and the de facto but unrecognized state of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. Since the end of the war, enmity against Armenians in Azerbaijan has built up. According to the Archaeological Institute of America, the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenians has "played a part in this attempt to eradicate the historical Armenian presence in Nakhchivan."
   In 1998, Azerbaijan dismissed Armenia's claims that the Khachkars were being destroyed. Arpiayr Petrosyan, a member of the organization Armenian Architecture in Iran, had initially pressed the claims after having witnessed and filmed bulldozers destroying the monuments.
   Reacting to the claims, the government of Iran expressed concern over the destruction of the monuments and filed a protest with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic's government (NAR). Hasan Zeynalov, the permanent representative of the NAR in Baku, stated that the Armenian allegation was "another dirty lie of the Armenians." The government of Azerbaijan didn't respond directly to the accusations but did state that "vandalism isn't in the spirit of Azerbaijan." Armenia's claims provoked international scrutiny that, according to Armenian Minister of Culture Gagik Gyurdjian, helped to temporarily stop the destruction.
   Armenian archaeologists and experts on the khachkars in Nakhchivan stated that when they first visited the region in 1987, prior to the break up of the Soviet Union, the monuments had stood intact and the region itself had as many as "27,000 monasteries, churches, khachkars, tombstones" among other cultural artifacts.

Renewed claims in 2003

In 2003, Armenians renewed their protests claiming that Azerbaijan had restarted the destruction of the monuments. On December 4, 2002, Armenian historians and archaeologists met and filed a formal complaint and appealed to international organizations to investigate their claims. Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliev also denied the charges, calling them "a lie and a provocation."
In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting claimed to have visited the cemetery and wrote that it had "completely vanished."
Azerbaijan barred the European Parliament because it said it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well. "We think that if a comprehensive approach is taken to the problems that have been raised," said Azerbaijani foreign ministry spokesman Tahir Tagizade, "it will be possible to study Christian monuments on the territory of Azerbaijan, including in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.". The inspectors planned to visit Nagorno Karabakh via Armenia, and had arranged transport to facilitate this. However, on August 28, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE released a demand that the inspectors must enter Nagorno Karabakh via Azerbaijan. On August 29, PACE Secretary General Mateo Sorinas announced that the visit had to be canceled because of the difficulty in accessing Nagorno Karabagh using the route required by Azerbaijan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Armenia issued a statement saying that Azerbaijan had stopped the visit "due solely to their intent to veil the demolition of Armenian monuments in Nakhijevan."

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