"Azeri" barbarians are destroying what's left of the ancient Jugha cemetery

[Reincarnated Am]

Report on Cultural Cleansing in Nakhichevan

Steven Sim, who visited Nakhichevan in 2005 to document the situation of the Armenian monuments, has prepared a detailed report on his observations. Sim’s report, in PDF file, is available at www.nakhichevan.cjb.net.

(I-Newswire) - Sim visited Nakhichevan, a historic Armenian region now under Azerbaijani control, in August of 2005. He was shocked by the state-sponsored destruction of the Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhichevan.

The Scot visitor was scrutinized and some of his photographs were deleted by Azerbaijani officials. He was reportedly told by the locals that there had never been Armenian churches in Nakhichevan. Sim writes:

“They asked me why I thought that there was a church in Shorut.
“Because a book had told me”, I said.
“It is wrong, it is lying to you. It is an Armenian book, yes?”
“Yes” I replied.
“You see, Armenians are always lying – they are lying to everyone”.
I couldn’t resist pointing out to them that there were photographs of the Shurut church in the book. Tothis they responded by saying “Armenians, they came here and took photographs of Shurut village andthen they went back to Armenia and put into them photographs of a church in Armenia.”
“It is all just Armenian lies. They are lying to you! There never were any Armenian churches anywherein Naxçivan. There were no Armenians ever living here - so how could there have been churches here?There never was a church in Abrakunis, there never was a church in Shurut, there never was a church
in Julfa!”

To download Sim’s report on the outrageous destruction of the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan, visit http://nakhichevan.cjb.net/.

http://i-newswire.com/pr55181.html

[imported_RUDO]

This is also considering that Azerbaijan was using much more sophisticated Soviet military equipment, and they still lost.

LOL.I think they are not brave enought to use those weapons.

[Gavur]

Is Denial a Hate Crime?

Commentary

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg135990.html

By Simon Maghakyan
Special to the California Courier


If you have not seen the mid-December (2005) video from Hin Jugha (now
Julfa, Nakhichevan) that shows Azerbaijani soldiers destroying the last
headstones of the ancient Armenian cemetery, visit www.julfa.cjb.net and do
so. Watch it closely, because this is the first documented "hot action" of
cultural genocide against the Armenian heritage. Watch it and know that
most Azerbaijanis look at these scenes and deny. They deny this happened.
The vandalism was criticized as violation of the UNESCO World Heritage
Convention by the Euro Parliament on 19 January 2006.
I never truly realized the deep and hateful evil of the Turkish denial of
the Armenian genocide before I faced the Azerbaijani denial Jugha's
destruction. While we can assume that Turkish deniers may sincerely believe
in their fabricated lies due to the fact that the Genocide happened 90
years ago, the same cannot be said about Azerbaijanis who shamelessly deny
what they can clearly see in the video. This means they know they are
lying; this means denial is not as naïve as we think it is.
Only a week after the news about the destruction, the Azerbaijani
government simply "dismissed the Armenian claims," by stating "no such
thing happened." Then, the Azerbaijani media fabricated a story about "the
destruction of a Muslim holy site in Armenia," trying to show that "we did
it but you it too." After this fabrication was uncovered, an Azerbaijani
academician announced that there had been no Armenian cemetery in
Nakhichevan. This absurd lie did not make it to anywhere either, since even
Azerbaijani websites have information about Jugha's Armenian khachkars.
Now, after the Euro Parliament called on Azerbaijan to stop the destruction
of the Armenian cemetery in its 19 Jan 2006 resolution, Azerbaijan is
giving up the denial. It is "simply" silent. An Azerbaijani national from
Baku, in contrast, is not silent. At www.day.az/forum (the relatively
tolerant Russian-language Azerbaijani forum), that person "justifies" the
vandalism in Hin Jugha's cemetery with the following phrase: "for those
resting under the cross stones, the living ones will come with arms."
Whether the living ones will ever go to Nakhichevan one day, I do not know.
But I know for sure that Hin Jugha will always live with the living ones,
the same way Msho Surp Arakelots and Varagavank live; the same way Ararat
will always belong to the living ones.
Simon Maghakyan is a graduate of the International Institute for Genocide
and Human Rights Studies and can be reached at [email protected].

[Reincarnated Am]

La Stampa Urges Azeri Authorities To End Destruction Of Armenian Monuments

LA STAMPA URGES AZERI AUTHORITIES TO END DESTRUCTION OF ARMENIAN MONUMENTS

YEREVAN, JANUARY 1, ARMENPRESS : Armenian foreign ministry said the Italian daily La Stampa carried a story in its January 23 issue by Flavia Amabile about the destruction of an old Armenian cemetery in Julfa, in Azerbaijan's enclave of Nakhichevan.
The destruction of the cemetery in mid-December 2005 by Azerbaijani soldiers was videotaped from across the border on the Iranian side. The author of the story condemned the destruction of the cemetery as ' barbaric act'' slamming the authorities of Azerbaijan, also the UN and UNESCO for their silence over this crime of cultural genocide.
The Azerbaijani embassy in Rome placed a retraction in January 30 issue, accusing the newspaper of disseminating false information. The January 30 issue also carried a story by Armenian ambassador to Italy, Ruben Shugarian, who cited a range of facts to show Azerbaijan's policy of destroying Armenian cultural monuments since the early years of the last century. Shugarian referred to the letter by US Congressmen, European Union and UNESCO urging Azeri authorities to end the destruction of centuries-old Armenian stone crosses (khatchkars) in the historic Julfa cemetery.
This cemetery includes khatchkars from as far back as the 7th century and is revered as an architectural treasure. International concerns were raised in 2002, when hundreds of the khatchkars were destroyed in a similar manner by Azerbaijan. Nakhichevan is a historic part of the Armenian homeland and was an integral part of the first Armenian Republic of 1918-1920. It was arbitrarily severed from Armenia and placed under Azerbaijani rule as part of the Soviet Union's accommodation with Kemalist Turkey and Moscow's "divide and conquer" gerrymandering of borders to facilitate its control of the region.
During the Soviet era, the indigenous Armenian population was pushed out of Nakhichevan due to discrimination, economic pressure, and other policies advanced by the Soviet Azerbaijani authorities.

http://www.armenpress.am/eng/news/polit.htm

UN and UNESCO = B/S. Tools to serve only the interests of Zionists

[Reincarnated Am]

Cultural destruction, a genocide continued

Written by Raffi Sarkissian, Contributor
Wednesday, 01 February 2006

History leaves its tangible marks on our world through the remnants of architecture and artifacts, which become valuable information for individuals researching the social sciences. For example, the Coliseum in Italy with its magnificent design tells us much about the culture, architectural motif and favorite past times of the ancient Romans.
Many historians of ancient history have indubitably learned a great deal from architecture such as the above example. However, in certain circumstances, when these invaluable pieces of history lie in occupied or disputed territory, they are systematically destroyed and removed from the face of the earth in attempts to remove, along with them, the cultural and historical realities and pasts of certain regions. This is especially true when the country committing these acts of cultural genocide is working diligently to hide a historical truth.
I speak of this problem because of a very recent incident in Old Djulfa, Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani occupied territory, just south west of Armenia. This region is historically Armenian, along with much of Eastern Turkey. After the forcible removal and deportations of the Armenians from their native lands, during the Armenian Genocide in 1915, these lands were left vastly marked by the remnants of the Armenian culture, religion and architecture mainly in the form of ancient churches, cemeteries and cross stones.
On Dec. 15, 2005, about 100 Azeri servicemen were caught, photographed and videotaped by onlookers from the Iranian boarder, while they desecrated and destroyed a 400-year-old Armenian cemetery filled with hand carved traditional Armenian cross stones, the second of such attempts in the last three years.
Both the Turkish and Azerbaijani governments have adopted a policy to destroy the abundant historical and cultural wealth situated within their territories. These are treasures, which belongs as much to all of humanity as to the Armenians themselves. Churches dating back to the eight and ninth century have been sentenced to destruction and neglect, or converted to stables and or target practice locations. The ancient city of Ani, today in Eastern Turkey, which was known for its 1,001 churches, is now barely marked by a handful of half destroyed churches. It is only a matter of time that these remnants too will be destroyed if serious action against this violence is not taken by the international community. This is an attempt to remove all traces of an Armenian history in these regions in order to further the Turkish and Azerbaijani genocide denial campaigns.
The destruction of these historical and sacred sites must be exposed and stopped, and the awareness of such events across the globe must be spread worldwide. As civilized human beings, we have learned to treat and respect the cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of this world with dignity, and we must not allow such forms of uncivilized and intentional destruction to occur. Destruction such as this promotes hatred, racism and pain, and only furthers the ambitions of oppressive and genocidal governments.

http://www.excal.on.ca/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1353&Itemid=2

[maral_m79]

More About The Destruction

The church is St. Karapet (St. John) of Aprakunis, built before 1381A.D. The supporting-founders of the church were Hovnan Vorotnetsi (Hovnan of Vorotn) and Grigor Tatevatsi (Grigor of Tatev), important figures in Armenian history.

According to an old tradition, snake poisoning was treated in this cathedral with the “blessed soil.” Because of that, the Christian cathedral was also a holy place for local Muslims.

St. John of Aprakunis (or Aprakunyats Surp Karapet) was rebuilt during 1655-1678, and a religious school was opened next to it in 1869.

Until the 1980s, there were cross stones (khachkars) dating back to 1475 A.D. next to the cathedral.

The cathedral was partially destroyed during the Armenian genocide of 1915, but it still remained until the late 1980s; until Azerbaijan decided they will teach their children that no Armenians ever lived in these lands…

I am posting here photos of the cathedral before the 1990s and the photos taken by Scot Steven Sim in 2005. Please note, that Azerbaijanis say that there had never been such a church in Nakhichevan…

St. Karapet before the 1990s


St. Karapet in 2005 (photo by Steven Sim)



St. Karapet before the 1990s


St. Karapet in 2005 (photo by Steven Sim)



Comparison

From : BLOGIAN

[maral_m79]

Fix 'em plz !

Hey friends ... Can somebody fix the pictures so they appear properly in the forum ? I tried to make them appear, but I couldn't !!

[Reincarnated Am]

Hey friends ... Can somebody fix the pictures so they appear properly in the forum ? I tried to make them appear, but I couldn't !!

Something's wrong with the link, it's not working, I tried other pictures it was working fine but don't know why these links are not working

[imported_RUDO]

We can see so many examples of destruction on monuments in Mesopotamia.(like in Turkey)

[maral_m79]

Thanks

Thanks Re .... I was sure that you would fix that ..... Many THANKS