Posted on

Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches

SIMON MAGHAKYAN

Covert destruction of Armenian-Christian heritage in Azerbaijan’s autonomous republic of Nakhichevan has been exposed in recently surfaced Cold War spy imagery taken by the US in the 1970s, published in “The Art Newspaper” for the first time.
Continue reading “Special investigation: Declassified satellite images show erasure of Armenian churches”

Posted on

Seeking Permanence in Pixels: Digital Echoes of Cultural Genocide

By Roza Melkumyan

According to Wikipedia, “Paraga is a village in the Ordubad District of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked enclave of Azerbaijan. Its population of 306 is busy with gardening, vegetable-growing and animal husbandry. It has a secondary school, library and a medical center.” A small, remote village, it isn’t on anybody’s radar. Except mine.

I discovered only recently that this unimpressive village was the home of many of my Armenian ancestors. In its second and final section, Paraga’s Wikipedia page features a short paragraph detailing the Armenian monuments that once existed in the village. “In the center, there stood the domeless Surp Shimavon Church, and in the countryside, the Surp Hakob monastery complex, both of which dated back to the 12th and 17th centuries.”
Continue reading “Seeking Permanence in Pixels: Digital Echoes of Cultural Genocide”

Posted on

Historic Armenian monuments were obliterated. Some call it ‘cultural genocide’

CATHERINE WOMACK
For centuries the sacred khachkars of Djulfa stood tall along the banks of the River Aras — hulking and ornately carved 16th-century headstones, an army 10,000 strong, steadfastly guarding the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery. Earthquakes, war and vandalism diminished their ranks, but by the middle of the 20th century, thousands of khachkars still remained.
Ամբողջը>>>

Posted on

This Year’s UNESCO Session Was an Insult to World Heritage

Djulfa, a sacred site for Armenian Christians, is disqualified from consideration because the host of this year’s UNESCO World Heritage Committee session, the government of Azerbaijan, has erased its existence and destroyed tens of thousands of Armenian cultural monuments.

OPINION
Simon Maghakyan
Hyperallergic
Continue reading “This Year’s UNESCO Session Was an Insult to World Heritage”

Posted on

Azerbaijan’s Destruction of Armenian Monuments Exceeds ISIS Crimes

“A groundbreaking forensic report tracks Azerbaijan’s destruction of 89 medieval churches, 5,480 intricate cross-stones, and 22,700 tombstones,” is the subtitle of an incredible article by Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman, published in the Hyperallergic Magazine last week. The article is titled: “A Regime Conceals its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture.”
Ամբողջը>>>

Posted on

A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture

In April 2011, when a US Ambassador traveled to Azerbaijan, on the southwestern edge of the former USSR, he was denied access to the riverside borderland that separates this South Caucasus nation from Iran. But it was not a foreign foe that halted the visit. Instead, his Azerbaijani hosts insisted that the envoy’s planned investigation inside the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan (officially, Naxçıvan Autonomous Republic) could not proceed because it was motivated by fake news. The ambassador had intended to probe the reported destruction of thousands of historical Medieval Christian Armenian artworks and objects at the necropolis of Djulfa in Nakhichevan. This cemetery is recorded to have once boasted the world’s largest collection of khachkars — distinctive Armenian cross-stones. However, according to Azerbaijani officials this reported destruction was a farce, that the site had not been disturbed, because it never existed in the first place. Despite ample testimony to the contrary, Azerbaijan claims that Nakhichevan was never Armenian.
Ամբողջը>>>