Nakhichevan: Azeri journalist told “never come back”
Idrak Abbasov, an Azeri journalist who confirmed the December 2005 destruction of the Djulfa cemetery in an Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) article in April 2006, has been harassed by the Azeri authorities in Nakhichevan and instructed to never visit the region.
Photo: Idrak Abbasov (via Radio Free Europe)
In the words of another Azeri journalist with IWPR:
An Azeri journalist said state security agents last week used the pretext of giving him an interview to detain, insult and abuse him.
Idrak Abbasov, a correspondent from the Zerkalo newspaper and an employee of the Institute for Reporters Freedom and Safety, IRFS, had traveled to the Nakhichevan region, which is separated from the rest of Azerbaijan by Armenian territory.
[…]
“Just as soon as I sat at the table, my hands were forced round and tied, they even closed my eyes. They took my phone, my camera and my documents. They took me to a room I didn’t know and started to ask about the reasons for my trip in a rude way, with insults and threats. I tried to explain that I had come to report. They told me that no journalist can come to Nakhichevan without the agreement of the local authorities.”
He said one officer asked him about connections with local journalists, then accused him of being a spy for Armenia. After two hours of interrogation, the MTN officers told him to get off the territory of Nakhichevan and never come back. He said the stress had made him feel ill, and he had been taken to hospital.
[…]
Azerbaijan Denies Yet Another European Visit to Djulfa
When, in February 2006, the European Parliament officially condemned Azerbaijan’s December 2005 deliberate destruction of the world’s largest Armenian medieval cemetery – Djulfa – the Azeri authorities denied European delegations’ visit to the site.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) delegation was already in Armenia – just miles away from Djulfa. But Azerbaijan didn’t allow them to visit the cemetery stating that the delegation must first visit Nagorno-Karabakh, the de facto Armenian republic that was placed under Azerbaijan by Stalin in the 1920s.
The European delegation then decided to visit Nagorno-Karabakh. In fact, they planned to visit all the South Caucasus Republics – Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia to asses the situation of minority monuments.
Azerbaijan, which still claims Djulfa was never destroyed because it didn’t exist in the first place, then said that it would only agree to the visit IF the delegation visited Nagorno-Karabakh from Azerbaijan (which is impossible since Nagorno-Karabakh is in a technical war with Azerbaijan and the only real way to visit Nagorno-Karabakh is from Armenia).
In an apparent desperation in the face of Azerbaijan’s continuous tricks to keep the delegation out of Djulfa, Edward O’Hara - head of the PACE Committee on Culture, Science and Education – has suggested to drop the idea of visiting all countries at the same time and instead start off by visiting Azerbaijan first.
According to Azerbaijan’s Trend News agency, O’Hara said on June 21, 2008 that he wants to visit Baku – Azerbaijan’s capital city – and Nakhichevan, the area where Djulfa was destroyed, as part of his first visit. Azerbaijan’s reaction is, as always, most predictable. According to Trend, an Azeri official, says that “We can agree to [visiting Azerbaijan first], but only if the rapporteur [O’Hara] visits Nagorno-Karabakh and its nearby regions occupied by Armenia beginning from Azerbaijan. We want him to see the Azerbaijani monuments destroyed by Armenians in the occupied territories.”
The Azeri official, in his own words, “informed the rapporteur that Nakhchivan does not have any ancient Armenian moment.”
And that is exactly why O’Hara wants to visit Nakhichevan – a region where thousands of indigenous Armenian monuments were surveyed just two decades ago – and find out why there aren’t any ancient Armenian monuments.
On Facebook: Justice for Julfa
Justice for Julfa, a group created by Aleks Gabrielyan on Facebook, fights for condemnation of the December 2005 deliberate destruction of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery by the Republic of Azerbaijan.
In the words of the group:
What is Julfa? Julfa is the site of an ancient Medieval Armenian City in what is now part of Azerbaijan’s Nakichevan Autonomous Region. The ruins contained a large cemetary of Khachkars, which are large stone grave markers that are beautifully carved and can be up to 8 feet tall.
Unfortunately, the Azeri government in efforts to erase Armenian influence in the region, began destroying the cemetary. Out of 10,000 khachkars, none stand anymore. They were smashed by Azeri soldiers, and the rubble was dumped into the nearby river. This group is is to demand justice for the destruction of such an important cultural site by the Azeribaijan government.
Djulfa Destruction Cartoons by MassisArt
MassisArt.com / Cartoon by Massis Araradian 2007
Originally published in Asbarez
MassisArt.com / Cartoon by Massis Araradian 2006
Originally published in Asbarez
Own the Book on Djulfa’s Destruction
The documentation of Djulfa’s destruction submitted to UNESCO in 2006 can now be purchased from the publishers of the report – the Switzerland-Armenia Parliamentary Group.
The book includes information and many color photographs about the history and the destruction of Djulfa. It can be purchased from asa@armenian.ch in the ammount of 26 Euro + shipping (8-10 euros).
The Photo of the Destruction’s Direct Supervisor
After closely watching the original tape of the December, 2005, destruction of the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery by Azerbaijan’s army, I was able to identify one – if not the only – participant of the destruction who wasn’t uniformed.
Taped on December 15, 2005, by members of the Armenian Church in Tabriz from Iran’s territory, the video showed a middle-age man – unlike the young soldiers – dressed in a black suite and directly supervising the dumping of the Djulfa cross-stones to the River Araxes.
The same man was also taped on December 16, 2005, at the same location at this time avoiding directly looking toward the Iranian border. Several soldiers were spotted using binoculars to look toward the Iranian border – they had apparently noticed the film crew that was taping them from across the border.
Although the snapshops of who appears to be a supervisor of the Djulfa destruction are not too clear to see the person’s face, certain traces of his apperance are clear enough to identify the criminal – that is if there were investigation to do so.
One candidate for the supervisor might be the chief police of the Djulfa district who, along with his family, died in a fire a month after Djulfa’s destruction:
In the night for 8 January the head of the Djulfa district police department Asif Guliyev and his family members died at the result of the fire which had broken out in his apartment in Nakhchevan [city], the press service of the Interior Ministry told Trend.
The cause of the fire was malfunction in the “Aygaz” type heater in the apartment of the people died. After the fire had been distinguished the corpses of Guliyev, his wife and two daughters, as well as the Baku resident Faig Imanguliyev have been found.
Whatever the case, there is now evidence of certain individuals involved in supervising the destruction of Djulfa.
And from Seychelles too
Apologies to the nation of Seychelles for failing to mention in our previous entry that an Internet user from Seychelles also has visited the Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum. We are curious to know who! 
Azerbaijan Responds to the Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum
Armenians create website named Djulfa, Azerbaijani region and post false reports and footages
[ 18 Jan 2008 13:53 ]
“Website www.djulfa.com registered by Armenians falsifies the history of Nakhchivan, integral part of Azerbaijan, posts claims that this territory is an ancient Armenian land and false footages that Azerbaijanis destroy Armenian monuments in Djulfa,” parliamentarian Ganira Pashayeva told APA.
She said that the website named Djulfa is the next subversion of Armenians against Azerbaijan and added that all should worry about the fact that Armenians have squatted some of the domains connected with the names of Azerbaijan, Karabakh, Baku, Sumgayit, Nakhchivan and the occupied regions.
“The measurers should be accelerated for returning such domains, including www.djulfa.com to Azerbaijan and informing the world community about subversion against Azerbaijan. The relevant bodies should work out the process of registration of domains connected with the name of Azerbaijan in order to prevent such a problem in future. We should inform the world community on the level of media outlets, different embassies and Foreign Ministry that the materials posted on this website are false,” the parliamentarian said.
Ganira Pashayeva said that Armenians are anxious about our informing world community about vandalism acts of Armenia and their destructing cultural-historical monuments belonging to Azerbaijanis in occupied Azerbaijani regions including Nagorno Karabakh and historical lands of Azerbaijan and areas called Armenian Republic today and Armenians want to confuse international community.
“Not touching upon Armenian church in Baku is the indicator of the position of Azerbaijan in such issues. But all religious monuments belonging to Azerbaijan were destructed in Armenia today. This fact is enough for criticizing Armenians. To our regret, Armenians and their scientists posted articles covering these absurd and false claims against Azerbaijan in several encyclopedias, including Britanica encyclopedia,” she said.
MP stressed necessity of establishing body under one of the relevant state organizations for removing and observing this aggressive policy of Armenia against Azerbaijanis virtually.
“Especially, special measures should be taken for eliminating aggressive propaganda of Armenia against Azerbaijani monuments dating back to Christianity period. We should not allow Armenians to falsify history of Azerbaijan and present it to world community,” she said. /APA/
Film “Julfa” on Cultural Destruction in Azerbaijan Available Online
A version of the film “Julfa” by Research on Armenian Architecture, a non-profit organization, is now available online at http://www.raa-usa.org/Videos/Julfa.wmv.
The film tells the history of the Djulfa (Jugha in Armenian) cemetery – from its past to the recent wipe out by Azerbaijani servicemen. It features unique footage from the December 2005 destruction with an especially disturbing scene of a crane pulling out a large cemetery tombstone from deep soil.
Protecting Cultural Heritage – All of Them
Protecting cultural heritage
And the “both sides are to blame” argument
By Simon MaghakyanThe Armenian Reporter, January 5, 2008 Page A3 http://mark.armenianreporteronline.com/generating/pdf/2008/jan05/A0105.pdf
DENVER – “The Armenian side gave its consent to the realization of a monitoring [of cultural monuments by the Council of Europe] in the entire territory of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and we expect an analogous decision from the Azerbaijani side,” Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said in December 18 press conference. The foreign minister was making a reference to Armenia’s continued efforts to attract international attention to the destruction of the region’s cultural heritage.
Mr. Oskanian went on to say that Armenia is ready to allow such monitoring on its territory, whether or not Azerbaijan gives its consent. And so far there is no evidence that such consent by Azerbaijan is forthcoming.
While on a one-day visit to Nakhichevan last November, the U.S. Ambassador in Azerbaijan Anne Derse was confronted by angry Azeri students who were unhappy that an exhibit at Harvard University featured photographs of Armenian cultural heritage – today completely vanished – in Nakhichevan. During Mrs. Derse’s visit, the Nakhichevani branch of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Sciences issued an official statement proclaiming that “there is no Armenian historical or cultural monument among those registered” in the region.
In fact, these Armenian monuments no longer exist. One of the largest – the medieval cemetery of Djulfa – was wiped off the face of the earth two years ago, in December 2005, in a well-documented case of vandalism that was condemned by the European Union.
And according to what Jonathan Henick, Public Affairs Officer at the American Embassy in Baku, told this writer, “[t]he Ambassador and others at the Embassy have raised the issue of the Djulfa cemetery with Azerbaijani officials.”
But during her short visit to Nakhichevan, Mr. Henick said, “The Ambassador did not have the opportunity to travel outside of the capital city. She did visit a number of interesting cultural monuments in Nakhichivan city, but our understanding is that none of those monuments were of Armenian origin.”
Perhaps the Ambassador missed a chance to visit the site where the world’s largest Armenian cemetery existed not too long ago. Instead, the American Embassy, as articulated by Mr. Henick, offered an important message to Armenia and Azerbaijan that “joint efforts to preserve monuments in both countries would serve the interests of safeguarding the shared cultural heritage of this fascinating region and might also be a valuable confidence- building measure in the ongoing efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.”
The well-intentioned statement of the Embassy resonates with a popular Western sentiment that “both sides are to blame” for the cultural destruction that is happening. This argument is in a way a form of political correctness and seeks not to dehumanize any ethnic group.
Yet this approach avoids analysis of specific cases and unintentionally supports the prejudiced “barbarian” argument – “Azeris are barbarians they have always destroyed Armenian monuments,” and vice versa. It suggests that if we accept that a certain aspect of an ethnic conflict – such as destroying the other’s culture – may be an official policy or a norm among one side and not necessarily and equally among the other then this one side is more “civilized” than the other.
In reality, cultural destruction during ethnic conflict and who destroys how much and how it goes about destroying is not a reflection of “clash of civilizations,” but a representation of a slew of historical and social circumstances. These do not demonstrate the “humanity” of one people or another but whether one or the other perceives the opposite side as much human.
While ethnic conflicts do typically involve misbehavior by both parties this does not necessarily mean that the “both sides” argument should be thrown out without actual evidence. This is what the European Parliament tried to do in its February 16, 2006, resolution on the destruction of the Djulfa cemetery by calling on both Armenia and Azerbaijan to stop destruction of the other’s monuments, although the resolution’s title was specifically about cultural heritage in Azerbaijan.
The recent and continuing destruction of Baku’s old Armenian cemetery, where many Russians, Jews, Ukrainians, Georgians and Azeris are also buried, a year and a half after the European Parliament resolution demonstrates the ineffectiveness of this approach.
Careful analysis demonstrates that there is a state-sponsored, systematic and popularly supported destruction of Armenian monuments in the Republic of Azerbaijan. This has been confirmed beyond reasonable doubt by non partisan experts such as Steven Sim – a researcher equally concerned and heavily critical of Armenia’s treatment of non- Armenian monuments.
Azerbaijan, too, has indirectly confirmed this assertion by suggesting that there have never been Armenian monuments in Nakhichevan and even in Karabakh. The Azeri leadership makes an exception only with Baku’s surviving Armenian cathedral – perhaps the only Armenian monument in Azerbaijan that has not been destroyed, although it was damaged in 1990 riots and shut down since then.
Elsewhere in Azerbaijan, there are no such exceptions. As reported by BBC, in March 2005 Armenian letters were removed from church walls and nearby tombstones in the village of Nizh in central Azerbaijan. “The Armenians argue,” the BBC reported at the time, “that churches with this type of [Armenian] inscription are an indication of their long roots in the region.”
This carefully-worded statement attributed to “the Armenians” is that Armenians are indigenous, at least in comparison, to the area and having a distinct alphabet they can demonstrate their long presence. This type of vandalism is essential in understanding the reasons for systematic deArmenization in Azerbaijan. The cultural destruction is, consequently, an attempt to deny Nakhichevan’s Armenian heritage.
Had the Azeris a distinct alphabet that could mark their past presence in Armenia and Karabakh – would Armenians too engage in systematic destruction of cultural monuments?
Armenia’s leaders have no such reasons to rewrite history and instead try to contrast their policies to what Azerbaijan has done to Armenian monuments. The restoration of two mosques in Karabakh with government funding is the most recent such example.
A more realistic picture of Azeri monuments in Armenia is one of neglect and ignorance, as Vanadzor-based journalist Naira Bulgadarian reported for the IWPR Caucasus Report in September 2007. There is also an effort to present Muslim monuments on Armenian territory as belonging only to the Persians, and not the Azeris – while both groups, as well as Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs, can lay claims to these monuments.
Yet, as Ms. Bulgadarian reported, the Armenian government has also allocated funds to catalogue and to safeguard Azeri cemeteries. An exhibit in Stepanakert late last year featured photographs of about 30 Muslim monuments in Karabakh.
Azerbaijani officials and activists, on the other hand, have to a large degree ridiculed the discussion of monuments in the South Caucasus. Last October and November, as part of the effort to thwart the Nakhichevan exhibit at Harvard, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry distributed letters and statements claiming that “Armenians destroyed over 100,000 cultural monuments, hundreds of cemeteries and 1,000-2,000-year-old archaeological monuments in the occupied Azerbaijani territory.”
These incredible numbers are presented without any evidence. Yet, the fact that Azerbaijani officials have repeatedly rejected outside investigation of the monument sites is telling of their insincerity when it comes to the protection of monuments, including the Azeri ones.
There is nothing dehumanizing about discussing cultural destruction and accepting the possibility that under certain circumstances one side of a conflict may have a different treatment of cultural monuments than the other. In fact, it should be the role of scholars and interested observers to have an objective, universal and apolitical approach to cultural destruction and call things by their names in order to contribute to preservation of cultural heritage of all involved.
It is also dehumanizing for Armenians to forget the Djulfa destruction. Last month was the second anniversary of the final destruction; few Armenian newspapers or organizations have taken notice.
It took Armenians fifty years to begin a campaign for Genocide affirmation. It has been only two years since Djulfa’s destruction, and it should not take as long to realize that a campaign is underway today to erase the Armenian heritage and with it Armenian presence from the remainder of their homeland.
(PHOTO): The Old Djulfa (Jugha) cemetery in the 1960s.
(IMAGE): A satellite image of the Djulfa site in September 2003 before its final destruction. At right bottom is the Arax river; the still standing or lying khachkars are the darker patches between the ridges and around the lighter area – which is the section where khachkars were removed before 2003. Source: DigitalGlobe.
