Ignored vandalism: The world is silent while hundreds of Christian monuments are destroyed in Azerbaijan

(I-Newswire) - The destruction of the Armenian stone crosses ( khachkars ) by the Azerbaijani government is ignored. A few days ago, a group of 200 Azerbaijani soldiers destroyed the few surviving architectural treasures of Old Jugha, a 400-year-old Armenian cemetery located in Nakhichevan ( now, a part of Azerbaijan ). Back in 1648, some 10,000 khachkars at the 1,600 square meter site of the Old Jugha cemetery were recorded, many as old as the 8th century. Thousands of Armenian graves were destroyed here in 2002 by the Azerbaijani government. The vandalism was ignored by the world. In the recent decades, Armenian culture has faced so much vandalism that the world has developed immunity against it. Almost every other day an act of cultural genocide against the Armenian civilization happens in the neighboring countries of Armenia, excluding Iran. Armenian churches and stone crosses suddenly “become” Georgian in Georgia; in Turkey, there is not much left to destroy ( over 2000 churches and cathedrals were ruined during the Armenian genocide in 1915 ), but a few surviving monuments are still being converted to Mosques or to secular buildings; in Azerbaijan, the Armenian monuments are either being wiped out or becoming “Albanian.” Let alone Russia, where Armenian cemeteries are being desecrated almost every other day.

Many acts of cultural genocide against the Armenian culture have been documents, but now the world has a video to look at; a “hot action” that shows Azerbaijani soldiers erasing the last memories of the Armenian past in Nakhichevan.

www.Blogian.cjb.net is watching the latest developments on the cultural genocide against the Armenian heritage in Nakhichevan.

The 30-second video can be downloaded by visiting http://azerivandalism.cjb.net/ and clicking on ““Click here to download file "14dec2005.wpl.” The same video is also available through http://clips1.vimeo.com/video_files/2005/12/16/vimeo.37011.wmv ( larger file ). The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia has posted clear photographs of the vandalism at its website: http://www.cathcil.org/v04/doc/Photos/Pictures109.htm. Archival photographs from the destruction in 2002 are available at http://raa.am/Magazine/FR_set_E_Exhib.htm. For more and constantly updated information visit www.Blogian.cjb.net

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