Azerbaijan Destroys Over 570 Armenian Cultural Heritage Sites Since 2020

The destruction of Armenian cultural heritage has been ongoing in Baku, Nakhchivan, Ganja, and other areas of Artsakh since the 1960s, during the time of the Azerbaijan SSR. This was stated by Arthur Gevorgyan, the founding director of the "National Park of Sculpture" museum and the founder of the public organization "Protection of Cultural Heritage of the Armenian Highlands" in an interview with Sputnik Armenia.

“Unlike previous periods, during the 2020 war, Azerbaijani soldiers, equipped with smartphones, filmed their vandalism and posted it online. The Azerbaijani authorities, realizing they were dealing with evident facts that are criminally punishable under international law, promptly imposed a ban. Nevertheless, there is now also the capability for satellite imaging, which allows observation of any area,” said the sculptor.

According to his data, more than 250 cultural heritage sites were destroyed during the 44-day war in 2020 and before that in Artsakh and adjacent regions, most of which were memorials to the victims of the Great Patriotic War. After the war, Azerbaijanis have destroyed 3-4 monuments and khachkars every week.

Since 2020, Azerbaijani forces have destroyed over 570 samples of Armenian cultural heritage. “There is hardly a week that passes without such incidents being recorded. The only thing left for us today is to compile these facts and present them to international courts. We must raise these issues in all international venues, not only to the Russian side but to the international community as a whole, to sound the alarm and apply pressure,” Gevorgyan added.

It should be noted that on August 28, a representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, was asked about the destruction of monuments to Soviet heroes in Artsakh. Zakharova stated that Russia regularly discusses the issue of preserving monuments from the Great Patriotic War with both Baku and Yerevan.