The destruction of Armenian Historical Monuments

Genocide is the physical annihilation of not only an ethnic or religious group but also its national and spiritual culture.

During it's centuries-old history the Armenian people has erected numerous and diverse cultural monuments. Most of them are currently located on the territory of Armenia - the historical cradle of Armenians. About 1/10th of the territory of the ancient Armenia is involved in the present territory of the Republic of Armenia due to historical events, while the rest is part of the territories of neighbouring countries.

That's why the majority of Armenian historical monuments are located outside the borders of the present Republic of Armenia.

The destruction of the Armenian stone crosses (khachkars) by the Azerbaijani government is ignored. In December 16 2005, a group of 200 Azerbaijani soldiers began destroying the surviving architectural treasures of Old Jougha (Julfa), a centuries-old Armenian cemetery located in Nakhichevan (now, a part of Azerbaijan). Back in 1648, some 10,000 khachkars at the 1,600 square meter site of the Old Jugha cemetery were recorded, many as old as the 8th century. Thousands of the Armenian graves were destroyed here in 2002 by the Azerbaijani government. The vandalism was ignored by the world.

In the recent decades, Armenian culture has faced so much vandalism that the world has developed immunity against it. Almost every other day an act of cultural genocide against the Armenian civilization happens in the neighbouring countries of Armenia, excluding Iran. Armenian churches and stone crosses suddenly "become" Georgian in Georgia; in Turkey, there is not much left to destroy (over 2000 churches and cathedrals were ruined during the Armenian genocide in 1915), but a few surviving monuments are still being converted to Mosques or to secular buildings; in Azerbaijan, the Armenian monuments are either being wiped out or "becoming" Albanian. Let alone Russia, where Armenian cemeteries are being desecrated almost every other day.

Many acts of cultural genocide against the Armenian culture have been documented, but now the world has a video to look at; a "hot action" that shows Azerbaijani soldiers erasing the last memories of the Armenian past in Nakhichevan.

To view this video, go to www.hairenikradio.com

http://anc.org.au/destruction_!.htm

http://anc.org.au/in_azerbaijan.htm