Artwork: Lost khatchkar from the cemetery
By Vahe Ashodian (USA) – published by permission
Dr. Vugar Seidov’s (seidovv@yahoo.com) communication to contact@djulfa.org
The following email was sent to Radio Free Europe publicizing a message to our website from an Azerbaijani “humanitarian consultant” and founder of Azerbaijan National Cultural Association of Hungary.
December 6, 2009
Dear Editor:
An otherwise predictable propaganda piece penned by a group of Azerbaijani activists commendably concludes “for both Armenians and Azerbaijanis to refrain from any hostile, derogatory, or inflammatory rhetoric.”
One of the coauthors of the latter opinion, regrettably, ignores his own advice in a message to an online project documenting Azerbaijan’s December 2005 demolition of the ancient Djulfa cemetery – on the Iranian border – in Nakhichevan. Dr. Vugar Seidov’s unsolicited email to our website on December 2, 2009 reads, in full:
“This is complete bullshit. If there is no Armenian in Julfa, why should there be a cemetery? Bye-bye, cemetery! You, idiots, should have taken your fucking khachkars with you when you left Julfa. Your fault. Keep crying, you Armenian nomads from Phrygie [sic].”
Dr. Seidov’s unhealthy reference to the thousands of sacred Armenian khatchkars, intricately carved tombstones reduced to dust in December 2005 and later replaced with a military rifle range, speaks for itself. His characterization of Armenians as “idiots” and “nomads” is disturbing too, to say the least.
Dr. Seidov’s barely concealed hatred is inconsistent with his self-promoted image as a consultant “on humanitarian, legal and international issues.” Bigots like him should have no platform at Radio Free Europe.
Simon Maghakyan
Founder and Project Manager
Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum – http://www.djulfa.com
The Djulfa Virtual Memorial and Museum documents the deliberate destruction of indigenous Armenian cultural monuments in Nakhichevan, Republic of Azerbaijan.
Djulfa Blog: Sacred Stones Reduced to Dust 