The Armenian historical and cultural heritage in the territories of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), which ended up under Azerbaijan's control as a result of the 44-day war, is in grave danger, permanent representative of Artsakh in Armenia Sergey Ghazaryan said at a parliament discussion organized by the Human Rights Committee on Wednesday, September 29.

Ghazaryan said the fate of more than 2,000 monuments in Azeri-controlled territories is under threat. Among them there are 13 monasteries, 122 churches, 52 fortresses and 523 khachkars, Aysor.am reports.

127 school libraries and 12 museums with more than 20,000 pieces have remained in the occupied territories of Artsakh, Ghazaryan added.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.