Armenia’s Representation to the United Nations, in cooperation with the Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Association of the Eastern United States, issued an appeal on the fifth anniversary of the destruction of Armenian monuments by the Azeri army.
The dossier, which was prepared on December 9 and presented by Armenia’s Ambassador to the UN, Karen Nazaryan, also includes a 90-page bilingual (English and French) booklet detailing the history and cultural significance of the Armenian monuments in Djulfa.
The current Nakhijevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan has been a historic part of the Armenian homeland for well over 2500 years. Its Armenian name translates into “the place of descent,” in reference to the landing of the Noah’s Ark on the adjacent Mount Ararat. It has been an integral part of Armenian life from as early as 521 B.C. and as late as the first Armenian Republic from till 1920. The historic Armenian Cemetery in Djulfa, located at the southern tip of Nakhijevan near the Iranian border, traces its history from the 6th to the 17th centuries A.D., where more than ten thousand intricately carved cross stones (khachkars in Armenian) marked the final resting place of the Armenian inhabitants of this area for well over one thousand years and represented different eras of Armenian history and presence in the area.
Unfortunately, the Armenophobic policies of the successive Azeri governments resulted in the destruction of greater than 80 percent of these historic landmarks by 1998, having gone as far as removing their remnants from the area via trains. In 1998, the inhumane process of defacement and destruction of the remaining khachkars at the cemetery was accelerated by the Azeri government, resulting in further destruction of another 800 or so khachkars. This new assault was only halted through intervention of the UNESCO and ICOMOS; however, the process was resumed in 2002 and culminated in the final destruction of the remaining khachkars by the Azeri armed forces in December of 2005 and rolling of their remains into the Arax river.
