Mass destruction of medieval Armenian cross-stone monuments captured at Jugha cemetery

 monument, christianity, Medieval / Middle Ages, destroyed

Armenia first brought up charges against the Azerbaijani government for destroying khachkars in 1998 in the town of Julfa. In 1998, Azerbaijan dismissed Armenia's claims that the khachkars were being destroyed. Arpiar Petrosyan, a member of the organization Armenian Architecture in Iran, had initially pressed the claims after having witnessed and filmed bulldozers destroying the monuments:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZu2zqFE_gI
Hasan Zeynalov, the permanent representative of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR) in Baku, stated that the Armenian allegation was "another dirty lie of the Armenians." The government of Azerbaijan did not respond directly to the accusations but did state that "vandalism is not in the spirit of Azerbaijan. Armenia's claims provoked international scrutiny that, according to Armenian Minister of Culture Gagik Gyurdjian, helped to temporarily stop the destruction.
n 2003, Armenians renewed their protests, claiming that Azerbaijan had restarted the destruction of the monuments. On December 4, 2002, Armenian historians and archaeologists met and filed a formal complaint and appealed to international organizations to investigate their claims. Eyewitness accounts of the ongoing demolition describe an organized operation. In December 2005, The Armenian Bishop of Tabriz, Nshan Topouzian, and other Iranian Armenians documented more video evidence across the Araks river, which partially demarcates the border between Nakhchivan and Iran, stating that it showed Azerbaijani troops had finished the destruction of the remaining khachkars by using sledgehammers and axes.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhhQ0z87oiY