Not only the St. Hakob Church in Stepanakert, built in 2007 on Hekimyan Street, has been demolished, but the entire surrounding area has also been leveled, according to images circulated online.

This indicates that the khachkars (cross-stones) and monuments located within the church grounds have also been destroyed. Particularly notable was a khachkar created by sculptor Robert Askaryan, as reported by the Monument Watch platform, which monitors the cultural heritage of Artsakh.

It is noted that the deliberate destruction of St. Hakob Church in Stepanakert constitutes a violation of Article 8 of the Rome Statute and is considered a grave crime against humanity. The damage inflicted on the church is also classified as a “serious violation” under Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and Article 15(a) of its 1999 Second Protocol, potentially prosecutable as a war crime in international courts.

The destruction of St. Hakob Church is also described as a genocidal act, as the concept of genocide today is examined in the context of attacks on cultural heritage (International Criminal Court, Policy on Cultural Heritage, para. 88).

The manual on cultural heritage provisions of the Rome Statute states: “Crimes against or affecting cultural heritage are often linked to genocide or committed as part of it” (ICC, Policy on Cultural Heritage, para. 78). The destruction of cultural heritage can cause serious mental harm to people, increasing the gravity and severity of genocidal acts under Article 6(b) of the Rome Statute.

“Beyond physical destruction, the demolition of St. Hakob Church has caused deep emotional and cultural consequences, affecting the impacted community and being viewed as a gross violation of the cultural rights of the people of Artsakh and the Armenian nation as a whole. The universal guarantee of cultural rights is defined in Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: ‘Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.’ Furthermore, Article 4 of the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity and paragraph 4 of Human Rights Council Resolution 10/23 state that no one may infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law or limit their scope,” the statement said.

The Artsakh Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church strongly condemned what it described as the complete destruction of St. Hakob Church in Stepanakert by the Azerbaijani occupation authorities.

The statement noted that for years the church had been a center of spiritual life in Stepanakert, where thousands of Artsakh Armenians offered prayers and where every Sunday Holy Communion was celebrated.