DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN HISTORICAL MONUMENTS IN AZERBAIJAN SHOULD BE CONDEMNED AND CEASED

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azeris' planned and consistent destruction of an Armenian historical monument - Jugha settlement in the district of Nakhichevan of Azerbaijan - has given cause for representatives of Armenian intelligentsia to meet in Yerevan. As noted by the meeting participants, records of Jugha cemetery can be found in the works of Armenian historian Movses Khorenatsi dating back to the 5-th century. According to the data available, the number of khachkars (cross-stones) at the cemetery exceeded 2.5 thousand at the beginning of 1998. The first attempts to destroy them were registered the same year. The demolition of the historical monument by means of bulldozers was shot with a video still camera by member of Iranian "Architecture of Armenia" organization Arpiar Petrosian. Then, the cemetery was practically annihilated by the end of 2002. As a response to statements of Armenian officials, Azeri foreign minister Vilayat Guliyev said that "the Jugha cemetery is a monument representing not the Armenian, but … Albanian culture." In the opinion of doctor of architectural science Varazdat Harutyunian, such a statement is evidence of ignorance of the Azeri minister. In his words, not having found any proofs that the historical monument belonged to Albanians, Azeris decided the issue by the only available method - by means of a bulldozer. In the course of the meeting a decision was made to create a council, whose activities would be directed at fostering recognition of Jugha as an international historical monument. The meeting participants called all organizations, as well as Armenians of all countries to unite and to call to account those, who were implicated in the act of vandalism.