Djulfa Monuments in a Nakhichevan City Museum?
Much of the world’s largest Armenian cemetery – Djulfa - was destroyed in 1998 and 2002 in Azerbaijan before its final, December 2005 wipe out.
While the apparent reason for the destruction was to show that Armenians never lived in Djulfa and the rest of Nakhichevan, some of the Djulfa stones were probably carried away on the train during the early destructions.
An Armenian architect, Arpiar Petrossian, told IWPR he visited the Iranian side of the border in 1998 with a friend in order to look at the monuments on that side. They also viewed the remains of the bridge. Looking across the river into Azerbaijan, he said, they noticed a flat-bed train apparently removing the cross-stones from the cemetery.
It is unlikely that the Azeri authorities would take the Djulfa stones away on a train to destroy them. There is real possibility that some of the stones – without Christian symbols or Armenian letters – were taken to be displayed at museums.
Hundreds of the Djulfa monuments were ram-shaped memorials that seem originate in pagan Armenia. Many of these didn’t have inscriptions on them, so it is likely that some of the Djulfa ram-shaped monuments have survived.
In fact, the official website of Nakhichevan exclave’s Azerbaijani authorities mentions that in 2002, the year when Djulfa’s destruction was underway, a new museum was created where rock monuments were brought from different regions. Posting a photo of a ram-shaped monument from what appears to be part of the new museum, the official website informs:
The museum under opened heavens – was established in accordance with the Decree of Supreme Council of Nakhchyvan Autonomy Republic dated July 11, 2002. In the museums during different periods of time there were being collected, stored and exhibited 84 material cultural values, out of them rock memorials, muttons figures and others. In the museum covered different periods of our history it is being collected stored and exhibited 84 material-cultural values consisting of rock sculptures, sheep figures and etc. During the years the Museum renders services to nearly more than 5000 citizens.
Address: Adjami seyrangakhi, Nakhchyvan city. Telephone: 45-08-06
One must be happy that some Djulfa stones have survived in Nakhichevan. And who knows how many monuments in the world have “survived” in a similar cover up to create history.
