The Foreign Ministry of Artsakh issued a statement about Azerbaijan’s policy to destroy and usurp the Armenian cultural and religious heritage of Artsakh.
“We strongly condemn the statement made by the State Committee for Work with Religious Organizations of Azerbaijan chairman on May 2 that Armenian monks should leave Dadivank because it allegedly belongs to Caucasian Albania and sooner or later will be governed by the Albanian-Uday religious community.
The statement of Azerbaijan’s head of the state body is a gross violation of the decision of the International Court of Justice of December 7, 2021. It once again proves that Azerbaijan’s authorities are implementing a consistent policy of depopulation of Artsakh, destruction, and appropriation of Armenian historical, cultural, and religious heritage with planned actions.
In this context, it is necessary to remember that 2020 Since November, Dadivank has been under the control of Russian peacekeepers, who are called to ensure uninterrupted and safe citizens’ access to the shrine. Moreover, as the world’s leading specialized organization, UNESCO has repeatedly emphasized that historical and cultural heritage should not become a tool for political goals and called on all member states to respect this principle worldwide.
2020 Due to the war and the occupation of Artsakh territories, about 1.5 thousand Armenian cultural and religious monuments, including monasteries, churches, khachkars, archaeological sites, forts, and sanctuaries, came under the control of Azerbaijan. During the 44 days of aggression, the armed forces of Azerbaijan deliberately targeted, destroyed, or desecrated many monuments and shrines. Immediately after the war, Azerbaijan’s top leadership initiated an ” Albanization ” policy of the Armenian historical and religious heritage, trying to erase all traces of the thousand-year-old Armenian presence in Artsakh and promoting false historical theses to justify the destruction and alteration of Armenian monuments.
In particular, in 2021, During his visit to the village of Tsakuri, Hadrut district, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, pointed to Tsaghkavank St. Armenian writings of Astvatsatsin Church (XII century), noted that they are fake, the church is Albanian, and he ordered to delete those writings. Later, a working group of “Albanian history and architecture specialists” was even created in Azerbaijan, the purpose of which was to remove “false traces left by Armenians” from the so-called “Albanian temples.” Among the vivid examples of Azerbaijani vandalism are the bombing of the Ghazanchetsot Church of Shushi during the war, and then the transformation carried out under the guise of renovation, the destruction of the Church of St. Hovhannes the Baptist (Green Hour), the destruction of the Armenian Church of the Virgin Mary of Mekhakavan, etc.
All these cases of vandalism, as well as Azerbaijan’s consistent policy of denying access to the UNESCO mission to assess the state of cultural objects and monuments in the occupied territories of Artsakh and their preservation, prove that the Armenian historical, cultural, and religious monuments in the occupied territories of Artsakh are in danger. They are either transformed or destroyed due to Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian state policy.
Thus, Azerbaijan, trying in every possible way to push the people of Artsakh out of their historical homeland, is conducting a policy of not only ethnic cleansing but also cultural genocide against Artsakh.
We appeal again to the entire international community, to all relevant international structures, and first of all to UNESCO, urging them to take urgent and practical steps to ensure the access of global missions and relevant experts to the occupied territories of Artsakh to assess the state of Armenian historical and cultural objects and monuments that have passed under the control of Azerbaijan and to be under international protection”.
