Alarm: The Kavalavank Church is Losing Its Original Appearance

The website monumentwatch.org, which conducts ongoing monitoring of cultural heritage in Artsakh, reports that construction work is being carried out in the area of the Kavalavank monastic complex, located in the occupied Hadrut region, according to a video posted online by an Azerbaijani user. The monastery is situated on a hill that stands out from the plain to the left of the road leading from Togh to Varanda (Fizuli).

Intensive fighting occurred around Kavalavank from October 12-14, 2020, and the area was subjected to shelling. Azerbaijani military personnel used the church as a military stronghold, resulting in significant damage or destruction to the church's ornamentation and inscriptions in Armenian. There was no information regarding the condition of the church after the 44-day war until the emergence of these videos.

The footage shows that the church and its surrounding area have been severely affected by enemy shelling, with collapsed sections, fallen stones, and damage to the roof. These damages were not present before the 2020 war. Furthermore, the video reveals that Azerbaijani soldiers who used the church as a military base left dozens of inscriptions in Azerbaijani inside the church.

Additionally, the cross-stone dedicated to the freedom fighters installed near the church in 1995 has disappeared, and it is highly likely that it was destroyed by Azerbaijani military personnel. Notably, the Azerbaijani side does not even hide its stance towards crosses, cross-stones, various memorial monuments, and newly constructed churches erected since 1994.

The video also shows that the Azerbaijani side has leveled the area surrounding the church and has carried out landfills. Judging by the equipment visible in the video, a new paved road is being constructed to the church.

What is particularly concerning are the ongoing works inside the church and at the entrance. The entrance appears to be significantly damaged, and the decorative edges have almost disappeared. Of course, there is the cheap propaganda trick of referring to the church, built by Armenians in 1742 and bearing inscriptions in Armenian, as 'Aghvanian'.

The Azerbaijani side seems to be conducting reinforcement and restoration works on the church, with the most risky aspect being the distortion of its genuine historical appearance under the pretext of restoration and the so-called 'Aghvanization'. Moreover, following numerous statements, including those made at the level of the country's president, the Azerbaijani government has consistently claimed that Armenians 'Armenianized' the Aghvanian monuments in the region during the years of occupation, and they will return them to their original form. This implies that cross motifs, cross-stones, and, primarily, inscriptions in Armenian, will be removed. This danger is clearly evident in the so-called 'construction works' of the Kavalavank Church.

Our Response: It should be noted that according to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its additional protocols of 1954 and 1999, it is prohibited to use cultural property protected by the convention for military purposes. Article 6 of the Second Protocol of The Hague 1999 prohibits the transformation of cultural property into military objectives or the use of such property for purposes that may make it vulnerable to destruction or damage. Furthermore, points g and d of Article 15 of the Second Protocol classify such acts as war crimes. When cultural heritage is used for military purposes, it loses the additional protection provided by the aforementioned convention and becomes a civilian object.

It should be recalled that the International Court of Justice of The Hague, in its decision of December 7, 2021, prohibited actions aimed at defiling Armenian churches: 'Azerbaijan is obliged to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration committed against Armenian cultural heritage...'. Furthermore, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Resolution 2583 stated that the denial of the Armenian-ness of Armenian cultural values and their attribution to Aghvanians is recognized as an 'Azerbaijani invention'.