The Holy Mother of God Church in Kharamort Used as a Storage by Azerbaijanis

After completely occupying the Republic of Artsakh, the Azerbaijani state apparatus continues to appropriate and destroy the cultural heritage of Artsakh. In the entirely depopulated Artsakh, the latest victim of the state-sponsored cultural genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan is the Holy Mother of God Church in the village of Kharamort in the Askeran region. This is reported by expert on Azerbaijan, Hayk’s Culture Ombudsman, Hovik Avanesov.

“Azerbaijani ‘APA TV’ released a video on March 1, 2024, clearly showing that the church is being used as a storage facility for various items, especially plastic bottles. The Holy Mother of God Church in Kharamort has also been targeted by Azerbaijani terrorist units since the war unleashed against Artsakh in the 1990s. Traces of gunfire from the Azeri invaders have been preserved on both the church walls and the gravestones located in the churchyard. The church was built in 1800. We consider it important to mention that using Armenian churches as storage facilities is a signature pattern of Azerbaijani behavior, with many examples, particularly before the liberation of the fortress city in 1992. During the first Nagorno-Karabakh War, the Holy All-Savior Church in Shushi was used as an ammunition storage depot. After the large-scale war launched against the Republic of Artsakh by the Turkish-Azerbaijani terrorist tandem on September 27, 2020, the Ktaharo Monastery, located at the top of Dizapayt Mountain in the occupied Hadrut region, is being used for military purposes.

All of this once again proves that Azerbaijan is conducting a state-sponsored intolerant and fascist policy towards Armenian cultural heritage. The Hague Convention of 1954, which is also the basis for other international agreements, defines in its first article that cultural heritage, 'regardless of its origin or ownership, constitutes the movable or immovable heritage that is of great importance to every nation.' Using the church as a storage disrupts the integrity of the structure. As established during the 36th meeting of UNESCO experts, 'the integrity is the heritage’s capability through which it ensures and preserves that value over time.' According to the principle of integrity, preservation primarily entails safeguarding the elements that convey the values of heritage while considering the relationships between both individual elements and the whole,” he writes.

Expert H. Avanesov emphasizes that the cultural genocide perpetrated by Azerbaijan in Artsakh and Nakhchivan is a continuation of the state-sponsored cultural destruction policy carried out by Turkey in Western Armenia, indicating that the artificial entity of Azerbaijan has been created precisely as a result of genocidal policies.