On February 28, 2021 a number of NGOs in Armenia and Artsakh issued a special Report “On xenophobia in Azerbaijan”.

6 NGOs from Armenia and one from Artsakh:

• Transparency International Anticorruption Center,
• Law Development and Protection Foundation,
• “Protection of Rights without Borders” NGO,
• Helsinki Citizens Assembly – Vanadzor,
• Helsinki Association, Human Rights Research Center,
• NonDiscrimination and Equality Coalition from Armenia,
• “Vector” youth NGO and Civic Hub (Artsakh / Nagorno Karabagh).

3 pages (21-24) from 37 in the report were devoted to the issues of the erasing traces of Armenian culture in the occupied by Azerbaijan territories of Artsakh.

Below is the mentioned chapter. Source – https://hcav.am/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Xenophobia_report.pdf

Erasing traces of Armenian culture

Armenophobic policies of Azerbaijan ran in parallel with its attempts to erase the traces of indigenous Armenian culture hence proving the genuine goal of removing Armenians from the region. Azerbaijan is actively engaged in historical revisionism and is using three major methods – destroying the cultural heritage of indigenous Armenians, vandalizing the historical monuments and/or appropriating the heritage to other people from the region.

Artsakh hosts vital immovable historical and cultural monuments, including important archaeological resources, of which 1,456 items were left under Azerbaijani control, including about 161 churches and monasteries, 591 khachkars (cross-stones), 345 valuable tombstones, 108 cemeteries and sacral sights, 43 fortresses and palaces, and 208 other types
of monuments. [102]

Armenians recognize these places as important relics of their ancient heritage and are concerned that they will be destroyed, vandalised or misused. Such concerns are not unfounded as Azerbaijan has a track record of engaging in this kind of activity before, whereas the related facts are described below.

During the war Azerbaijani armed forces deliberately shelled St. Holy Saviour Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi [103] a masterpiece of 19th century Armenian architecture, spiritual and cultural center of Artsakh. After the war they assaulted Kanach Zham (Green Church) – whereby its dome and the bell tower were destroyed. [104]

Following the declaration of the armistice signed on November 10 2020, Azerbaijanis entered Shushi city and desecrated the Cathedral of Ghazanchetsots with graffiti on the external and internal walls of the Cathedral. [105] Other damaged monuments in the post war period include
the Holy Mother of God church in Jabrail region, [106] monuments devoted to the victims of the Great Patriotic War in the village Avetaranots, Askeran district of NKAO [107] and Talish, Mardakert district of NKAO, [108] the Armenian cross-stone in the village of Arakel, Hadrut district of Artsakh. [109] There are a number of videos showing aggression towards and vandalism at the Armenian cemeteries in the occupied territories of Armenian settlements. [110]

Following the collapse of Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has destroyed 89 medieval Armenian churches, 5,840 intricately carved cross-stones called khachkars, and 22,000 tombstones in Nakhichevan/Nakhchivan, another enclave separated by Bolsheviks from Armenia and transferred to Azerbaijan in 1920s. The famous cemetery of cross-stones in Jugha/Julfa – the hometown of prosperous Armenian merchants in Medieval Ages, was pulverized with bulldozers, heavy hammers and pickaxes. [111]

As for appropriation of the monuments, such practices started mostly in the late Soviet period, as Azerbaijan suddenly began to claim that many Armenian/Christian historical monuments in fact belong to Caucasian Albanians previously living on the territory of Azerbaijan, and
consequently – are Azerbaijani. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that Azerbaijan’s repressive policies towards its minorities have almost eradicated the Christian Udi people – the actual descendants of Caucasian Albanians – living along the coast of the Caspian Sea, in the territory extending to the Kura River in the north. Their numbers used to be more than 50,000 in 19th century, [112] but dwindled to 6,125 in 1989, [113] 4,200 in early 2000s [114] and 3,800 in 2018. [115]

There is evidence that under the name of Caucasus Albanian/Udi heritage Azerbaijan removed Armenian traces, such as the inscriptions on the tympanum and on tombstones outside the St. Eliasaeus church in Nij (Gabala) built in 1823 [116] and erased Armenian letters in the Virgin Mary church in Nij (Gabala) built in the early 1890s. [117]

During the recent war, on October 19 2020, Azerbaijan’s First Deputy Minister of Culture Anar Karimov stated that among other things, the war also aims at liberating “a huge number of cultural and historical monuments from the occupation of the Armenian Armed Forces,” [118]
making it an overt statement of the intended efforts of reassignment of the cultural meaning of some monuments to Azerbaijan. [119] On November 11, 2020, Karimov tweeted that Khudavang (the Armenian monastery of Dadivank on the territory transferred to Azerbaijan, close to the NKAO border) is “one of the best testimonies of ancient Caucasian Albanian civilization.” [120] It is worth mentioning that the same monastery laid in ruins and served as a farmhouse before the Armenians restored it after the war of 1990s. These cases also prove that the appropriation strategy is quite recent in Azerbaijan.

In 2016, IRS Publishing House, financially supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Azerbaijan, published an illustrated online book, Karabakh Over the Centuries, where all historical references to the Armenian presence in Karabakh are erased.

The only mention of Armenians is a chapter on the Armenian “aggression” in the first Karabakh War, while medieval Armenian churches are identified as Albanian churches. [121]

Since the armistice of November 10, 2020, the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Artsakh has made efforts to remove from occupied Shushi the collections of the city’s three museums, including about 200 monuments of the Museum of History of Shushi, nearly 800 paintings, graphic works and sculptures of the Museum of Fine
Arts and over 700 samples of the Geology Museum. So far, negotiations that engage the Russian peacekeepers have been unsuccessful and there are concerns that a large part of collections will be appropriated, while others might be destroyed. [122]

Another museum that had not dislocated its collections from the occupied lands was Hadrut’s Museum of Homeland Studies named after Artur Mkrtchyan. On February 22, 2021, Armenian Public Radio published the evidence of the museum being vandalized. [123]

UNESCO has made a proposal to organize a mission to Artsakh to create an inventory of significant cultural properties so that they can be protected following the conflict. The mission can take place only with the agreement of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, however so far Azerbaijan has failed to respond to the request. [124]

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102 The Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh, Ad Hoc Public Report: The Armenian Cultural Heritage In Artsakh (NagornoKarabakh): Cases Of Vandalism and At Risk of Destruction by Azerbaijan, January 26, 2021,
https://artsakhombuds.am/en/document/792

103 Ruptly Channel, Nagorno-Karabakh: Drone captures aftermath of shelling Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, October 14, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmF23hoETyI; Human Rights Watch, Azerbaijan: Attack on Church Possible War Crime, December 16, 2020, https://bit.ly/3jXyLF4

104 Zartonk Media, Report: Azerbaijanis Have Destroyed the Bell Tower & Dome of Shushi’s Armenian “Kanach Zham” Church, Built in 1818, November 19, 2020, https://bit.ly/3iaSLmv

105 1News, The Azeris Who Entered Shushi Desecrated the Ghazanchetsots Church, November 14, 2020, https://bit.ly/2Lifcug; Panorama.am, Azerbaijanis Vandalize Shushi’s Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, November 14, 2020, https://bit.ly/3gHmNxn

106 Thinking Humanity on Facebook, Video Shows Islamist Pulling down Cross from Church Roof in Artsakh as He Shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’, November 17, 2020, https://bit.ly/2Lr6Xfh

107 NewsInfo, Azeri Troops Filmed Shooting at Great Patriotic War Memorial in Karabakh, November 19, 2020, https://www.newsinfo.am/eng/article/view/V1OtK7k9t

108 Panorama.am, Azerbaijanis Desecrate and Destroy Armenian Graves in Artsakh, November 26, 2020, https://bit.ly/35z0CFo

109 Desecration of Kachkar in village of Arakel, Artsakh,
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SMTMraqK8kaWNGor6R7MCGolmVXAzFCQ?usp=sharing

110 Zartonk Media, Azeri Soldiers Destroy Gravestones in an Armenian Cemetery in Occupied Artsakh’s Karvachar, November 26, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/ZartonkMedia/videos/3495305603885048; Azeri War Crimes Channel, Azerbaijani Soldiers Destroying and Desecrating Armenian Cemeteries, January 9, 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHLvWjT_cpE; Human Rights Ombudsman of Artsakh on Twitter, November 26, 2020, https://twitter.com/artak_beglaryan/status/1331931713052794880?lang=en; Region Monitor, Азербайджанские мародеры оскверняют и разрушают армянские надгробия, November 26, 2020, http://regionmonitor.com/language/ru/22602;
Azeri War Crimes.org, Deliberate Destruction and Desecration of Armenian Cemeteries and Gravesites by Azerbaijan’s
Armed Forces, January 11, 2020, https://azeriwarcrimes.org/2021/01/11/deliberate-destruction-and-desecration-of-armeniancemeteries-and-gravesites-by-azerbaijans-armed-forces/

111 Heritage at Risk, Azerbaijan: Destruction of the Armenian Cemetery at Djulfa – Continued, 2006/2007, https://www.icomos.org/risk/world_report/2006-2007/pdf/H@R_2006-2007_09_National_Report_Azerbaijan.pdf

112 OSCE, Conference on Combating Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding, June 6, 2007,
https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/a/b/25591.pdf

113 Demoscope Weekly, Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам
СССР: Азербайджанская ССР, http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_89.php?reg=7

114 OSCE, Conference on Combating Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding, June 6, 2007,
https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/a/b/25591.pdf

115 World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Azerbaijan, updated in March 2018; https://minorityrights.org/country/azerbaijan

116 BBC News, Azeri Church Sparks Political Row, March 10, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4336733.stm

117 Armenian Mirror Spectator, Former Dutch Envoy Exposes Azeri Vandalism on Armenian Church, November 28, 2020,
https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Armenian-Mirror-Spectator-November-28-2020.pdf

118 Vestnik Kavkaza, Anar Kerimov: “Karabakh will Regain its Reputation as a Center of Peace, Love and High Culture,”
October 19, 2020, https://vestnikkavkaza.net/interviews/Anar-Kerimov-Karabakh-will-regain-its-reputation-as-a-center-ofpeace-love-and-high-culture.html

119 RFE/RL, Left Behind? Churches, Monasteries Due for Handover to Azerbaijan, November 14, 2020, https://bit.ly/3am7DMB

120 Anar Kerimov on Twitter, November 11, 2020, https://twitter.com/Anar_Karim/status/1326437397270310912?s=20

121 IRS Heritage, “Karabakh over the Centuries”, 2016, https://books.irs-az.com/garabagh_en/index.html

122 Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), Fears for Armenian Cultural Heritage in Karabakh, January 18, 2021,
https://iwpr.net/global-voices/fears-armenian-cultural-heritage-karabakh; Hetq, Shushi’s Museums: Most Collections Now in
Azerbaijani Hands, January 26, 2021, https://hetq.am/en/article/126646; The Art Newspaper, Azerbaijan Refuses to Hand over 1,500 Artworks after Seizing ‘Cultural Capital’ in Nagorno-Karabakh, January 29, 2021,
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/azerbaijan-refuses-to-hand-over-1-500-artworks-to-armenia-backed-artsakh-government; Archi Galentz on
Facebook, November 25, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/archi.galentz/posts/10223964146800890

123 Armenian Public Radio, Hadrut Museum Has Been Vandalized: Artsakh Monuments Appear to be Obstacles for the Economic Projects of Baku, February 22, 2021,
https://hy.armradio.am/2021/02/22/%D5%BA%D5%B2%D5%AE%D5%BE%D5%A5%D5%AC-%D5%A7-%D5%B0%D5%A1%D5%A4%D6%80%D5%B8%D6%82%D5%A9%D5%AB-
%D5%A9%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A3%D5%A1%D6%80%D5%A1%D5%B6%D5%A8%E2%80%A4-%D5%A1%D6%80%D6%81%D5%A1%D5%AD%D5%AB-
%D5%B0/

124 UNESCO, Nagorno-Karabakh: Reaffirming the Obligation to Protect Cultural Goods, UNESCO Proposes Sending a Mission to the Field to All Parties, November 20, 2020, https://en.unesco.org/news/nagorno-karabakh-reaffirming-obligation-protectcultural-goods-unesco-proposes-sending-mission; UNESCO, UNESCO is Awaiting Azerbaijan’s Response Regarding Nagorno-Karabakh Mission, December 21, 2020, https://en.unesco.org/news/unesco-awaiting-azerbaijans-responseregarding-nagorno-karabakh-mission; Commonspace.eu, UNESCO Hoping to Send Mission to Nagorno-Karabakh, February
5, 2021, https://www.commonspace.eu/index.php/news/unesco-hoping-send-mission-nagorno-karabakh; Newsweek, Christian Heritage at Risk as U.N. Watches in Silence, February 22, 2021, https://www.newsweek.com/christian-heritagerisk-un-watches-silence-opinion568671