Julfa Armenian Cemetery Destroyed by Azerbaijan

[Armenian Bishop]

Azerbaijan is a Turkic Country, on the Eastern Border of Armenia. Azerbaijan is a political and military ally of Turkey. Because of its Turkic affiliations, Azerbaijan has ethnically cleansed Armenians from their indigenous homeland, for more than a century now, in solidarity with Turkey. Both Azerbaijan and Turkey have exercised formidable influence over global politics -- Azerbaijan with its oil wealth, and Turkey with its dominance in NATO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan_pipeline

During Soviet Times, the Bolshevik Regime gifted territories of Armenia to its' neighbors: During the '20s both Nakhichivan and Karabakh were given to Azerbaijan, Javakhk was given to Georgia, while Kars and Ardahan were given to Turkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Sèvres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kars

Nakhichevan and Karabakh were given to Azerbaijan, to appease Turkey, and the Caucasian Tatars of the USSR. Karabakh, also known as Artzakh, is on the eastern border of Armenia. Armenians now control it, after defeating Azerbaijan in the Karabakh War (1988-1994). Karabakh functions as a sovereign country, but it hasn't achieved UN recognition. Nakhichevan is an Azeri enclave sandwiched between present day Armenia, Iran and Turkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagorno-Karabakh_War
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karabakh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakhchivan_Autonomous_Republic

Stalin's Georgian origin influenced him to give Javakhk to Georgia, it lies on the northeast border of present day Armenia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Javakheti

In an endeavor to bring Ataturk's Turkey under the influence of the USSR, Kars and Ardahan, were given to Turkey, and now comprise the Northeast section of present day Turkey.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Alexandropol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Kars

The Julfa Armenian Cemetery, is an ancient Armenian Cemetery, in Julfa, Nakhichevan, completely destroyed by a premeditated government directed plan to demolish it, and remove evidence of an historical Armenian presence in the area. Azerbaijan has schemed to remove evidence of the historical presence of Armenians, in present day Azerbaijan, even Armenian cemeteries. This is but one aspect of a rather complicated scheme to ethnically cleanse Armenians, throughout Azerbaijan. Another aspect of it has been pogroms, government organized mob thuggery directed against Armenians in Azerbaijan, especially at Sumgait (1988), Kirovobad (1988), and Baku (1990.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumgait_pogrom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirovabad_pogrom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baku_pogrom

By 2006, the Julfa Armenian Cemetery was completely destroyed. An Azeri military base, with a firing range, was established, by Azerbaijan, on the former site of the ancient cemetery. More than 10,000 Armenian Cemetery Crosses (Kachkars) were pounded into rubble with sledge hammers, and nothing now remains, except rubble dumped into the Araxes River.
http://jughaculturalgenocide.blogspot.com/p/jughas-julfa-djoulfa-cemetry.html

"In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting who visited the area reported that no visible traces of the cemetery remained. In the same year, photographs taken from Iran showed that the cemetery site had been turned into a military firing range."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_cemetery_in_Julfa


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4OHVFNePaI

"The documentary presents the history of Old Jugha (Julfa), located on the left bank of the Arax, and exposes the annihilation of its medieval Armenian cemetery by the Azerbaijanian authorities of Nakhijevan. It used to boast thousands of ornate cross-stones which were destroyed with bulldozers. At present a shooting ground is stationed in the site of the three hills of the graveyard which once represented a thick forest of khachkars and tombstones..."(YouTube Summary).

[Partia e Forte]

You Armenians are very unlucky, it is really hard to be surrounded by turks :(

[adsız]

Good. :)

[Kamal900]

Its terrible.

[sioned]

Clear evidence that the land is Armenian originally :)
Hope Armenia get it back some day!

[Nurzat]

it's sad what happens. people should be kinder. but on the other hand, if they removed the German cemetery in my village, as Germans don't live there for almost a century, and there's need of space, why preserve something dead and anyway cemeteries are a land issue in the overpopulated world of today. I'm just saying. maybe both parts should be less nationalistic. pride is good with measure (I'm saying these to both parts), both should let go and embrace friendship

let's encourage Turkish-Armenian friendship

[Instinct]

That's not good. We should protect the historical thombstones, etc. doesn't matter what culture they were belong.

[Armenian Bishop]

it's sad what happens. people should be kinder. but on the other hand, if they removed the German cemetery in my village, as Germans don't live there for almost a century, and there's need of space, why preserve something dead and anyway cemeteries are a land issue in the overpopulated world of today...

I understand and respect the genuine sad feelings in that comment.

Azerbaijan has taken cultural genocide into the realm of the dead, when it gave authorization for pounding thousands of Armenian gravestone crosses (or kachkars) into rubble. And, building a military base with a target zone, in 2006, over demolished cemetery remains cannot be excused.

it's not about overpopulation. It's about ethnic cleansing, and the destruction of cultural artifacts. Cemeteries are hallowed ground.