The Azerbaijani military has desecrated the cemetery of the Nagorno-Karabakh village of Taghavard, which came under Azerbaijani control during the Second Karabakh War in fall 2020.

Oleg Harutyunyan, the head of community, confirmed the news to Artsakhpress on Monday, May 3. According to him, the Russian peacekeepers deployed in the area have already been notified and are expected to visit the site in the coming days.

A cemetery situated alongside an Armenian church in Hadrut, other graveyards, cultural heritage sites and religious shrines have been vandalized or destroyed earlier.

During the recent military hostilities, Azerbaijani forces launched two targeted attacks on the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. Azerbaijan earlier "restored" a church by replacing its Armenian inscription with glass art. Furthermore, Azeri President Ilham Aliyev visited the region of Hadrut in territories occupied by Azerbaijan and declared his intention to "renovate" a 12th century Armenian church, which he claimed to "an Albanian church". Aliyev went so far as to accuse Armenians of leaving "fake inscriptions" in the Armenian language.