PHOTOS: Azerbaijan's latest vandalism turns historical layers of a church in Shushi into a dump

The organization Monument Watch, which monitors the monuments of Artsakh, reports that Azerbaijan has turned the historical layers of the 19th-century Mehretsots Church of the Holy Mother of God in Shushi into a dump.

“As clearly shown by the satellite images published by the Caucasus Heritage Watch initiative, the remnants of the Mehretsots Church of the Holy Mother of God have been damaged due to construction work in the occupied city of Shushi (see photo 1). According to a satellite image taken on November 3, 2023, the Azerbaijani side has filled the archaeological layers of the church, which were unearthed during excavations in 2017, with construction debris using heavy machinery. Since 2021, satellite images have only documented the area becoming overgrown and neglected. The Mehretsots Church of the Holy Mother of God was built in 1838 at the expense of Mahchess Hakhumyan. In the 1960s, much of the church's structure was demolished by Azerbaijani authorities and repurposed into a summer open-air cinema. It is noteworthy that since the 1960s, Azerbaijani authorities have actively begun to destroy Shushi's cultural heritage, artificially altering the city's cultural identity into an Azerbaijani cultural center. As a result of this policy, Shushi's Armenian neighborhood and its monuments faced significant damage. In particular, the Church of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots was left in an emergency condition, and the Green Hour Church was turned into a mineral water drinking salon. The Kusanats Monastery and Agulecots Church of the Holy Savior were completely destroyed. During those years, the Armenian cemetery in the city was also demolished by Azerbaijani authorities. In the case of the Mehretsots Church, Azerbaijani authorities have blown up most of the church walls, and the surviving foundation walls over one meter high have been incorporated into the asphalt (Mkrtchyan 1980, 155-161, Petrosyan 2010, 137-148). Excavations in the area of the Mehretsots Church were conducted in 2017 by the archaeological team of the State Service for the Protection of Historical Environment of the Republic of Artsakh (team leader PhD Yeryanyan N., architect Titanian A.). Before the excavations (see photos 2, 3), the area was completely asphalted, and only the altar and two chapels were visible on-site (Yeryanyan 2021, 498-502). The asphalt layer was removed during the excavations, revealing the church's foundations (see photo 4),” the organization states on its website, continuing:

“Our response to the Azerbaijani authorities is that since occupying the city in November 2020, they have actively continued the policy of destruction and appropriation of Shushi's history and cultural heritage that began in the 1960s. The International Court of Justice's ruling on December 7, 2021, prohibited actions leading to the destruction of Armenian churches, stating: ‘Azerbaijan is obliged to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration carried out against Armenian cultural heritage...’ It should also be noted that damage to the cultural values of any people is an affront to the cultural heritage of all humanity, as each nation contributes to the global cultural diversity. According to Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, acts of vandalism, theft, looting, appropriation, hostility, and reprisals against cultural heritage are prohibited. The first protocol of the Hague of 1954 also prohibits the destruction of cultural or spiritual assets in occupied territories. Such deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is condemned by the 2003 UNESCO Declaration on the Deliberate Destruction of Cultural Heritage.”