Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian addressed the opening session of a conference on the destruction of ancient Armenian monuments and relics in today's Azerbaijan.
The conference, jointly sponsored by Research on Armenian Architecture, the Land and Culture Association, and the Armenian Academy of Sciences is intended to raise awareness on contemporary actions which result in the devastation of historical and cultural legacy. The focus of the conference and the attention of these organizations, as well as the Armenian Government, is the destruction of thousands of khachkars in the old Armenian cemetery of Jugha, in southern Nakhichevan, on the bank of the Arax river, where it forms the Azerbaijani border with Iran.

Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian, of the Land and Culture Organization, opened the program by noting that in all wars, cultural monuments as part of the battle against the other side. He noted that the Armenian government has played an active role in the fight to raise international public opinion about this particular act of destruction and to try to save what monuments are left. He said that the Minister's presence is evidence of the willingness of the Armenian state to defend Armenia's legacy even outside Armenia's borders.

Minister Oskanian welcomed the initiative of the organizers and noted that the Armenian government has been working on the situation in Jugha for over five years. He explained that the government had appealed to UNESCO then, and again recently, too. A letter to UNESCO Secretary General Koichiro Matsuura expressing his concern, and inviting UNESCO to send a commission of experts to Nakhichevan to see the destruction first hand had resulted in the slowing of activities by the Azerbaijanis. “These khachkars, or stone-crosses, are unique tombstones in that they are simultaneously sculpture, archive and marker. Their removal is in line with Azerbaijan's mission to expunge the historical record and remove all documentation of Armenian presence on those lands,” the letter said.

The Minister explained that protecting our cultural treasures is a part of Armenia's foreign policy, and that the government continues to fight in international stage against the systematic policy of removing Armenian cultural monuments in this region. He said this was a specific aspect of Azerbaijan's policy of ethnic cleansing—intentionally removing all Armenian traces from the region, such that today, only a few khachkars remain out of an initial 10,000. The rest are broken, destroyed, cut up and removed.

The Minister called on the conference to take concrete decisions about future steps, and said the Armenian government, having signed the Convention on Protection of Cultural Monuments in Conflict Areas, as well as one on the Preservation of World Cultural and Natural Heritage is prepared to protect its rights under these international agreements as well.

Background on the Jugha Cemetery and the History of Destruction

Alexander Rotes mentions the Jugha cemetery in his description of journeys in 1648 and reports 10,000 fully decorated cross stones. In 1605, the Armenian people of Jugha (or Julfa) were forced by Shah Abbas to settle in Persia in order to develop trade and commerce in his country. He destroyed the town to prevent their return , however he left the cemetery untouched. At the beginning of the 20th century, 6000 reclining and standing Khachkars could still be counted.

After Armenia was incorporated into the Soviet Union, Nakhichevan in the south of Armenia was annexed to Azerbaijan at Stalin's and Lenin's behest in 1922. Nakhichevan is still under Azerbaijani sovereignty.
During the Soviet reign, this historically and culturally unique cemetery of Julfa was not at all under the protection of those responsible for the historical monuments of Azerbaijan. On the contrary, after 1922 a large number of Khachkars disappeared. Considering the close watch of the border in what was an inaccessible military zone, this could not have happened without the government's knowledge. And more destruction was yet to come.

In November 1998, eyewitnesses on the Iranian border, observed tombstones being excavated by a crane and loaded on railroad wagons on the cemetery grounds across the river Araxes. The ground was ripped up then flattened again by bulldozers.

This destruction lasted for three weeks and about 800 khachkars were taken away. There is reason to believe that these cross stones? if not destroyed right away? were used as building material for foundations of new houses in order to hide their removal. Transportation by the state railway is clear evidence that this was a planned action by the government of Azerbaijan. Protests on behalf of UNESCO and affiliated organizations did finally put a stop to these barbarous activities.

It is a travesty that the decimation is going on still. Reliable sources have informed us that in November, 2002, the destruction not only of tombs but also of the still remaining (although already reduced) churches and cloister grounds in the area have been resumed. A great number of workmen are again dismantling valuable relics of medieval Armenian culture partly by demolishing them and partly by taking them away on trucks to an unknown destination. Again, an activity of this magnitude can't be conducted without the permission of the government.

One can't avoid drawing a parallel to the destruction of the Buddha statues by the Talibans in Afghanistan which were accompanied by a world wide protest.

This, too is the systematic obliteration of religious and historic monuments, for the purpose of doing away with all evidence of the existence of the Armenians on these historic lands.

Azerbaijan should be called upon to account for its violations of international agreements, including those with UNESCO and the Council of Europe on protection of cultural monuments.