Old Julfa Armenian cemetery (khachkar field)
Jugha cemetery; Old Julfa khachkar field; Djulfa
Medieval Armenian cemetery on the Aras river, the largest concentration of khachkars (carved cross-stones) in the world. Argam Ayvazyan inventoried the site in the 1970s, recording roughly 2,700 khachkars on three hills. Demolition was carried out in three phases by Azerbaijani military personnel, 1998, 2002 (filmed by Iranian observers across the river), and a final levelling in December 2005, when soldiers reduced the remaining stones to rubble and dumped them into the Aras. AAAS satellite analysis (2003 vs. 2009 imagery) confirmed the site had been razed and converted to a military firing range.
Medieval Armenian cemetery on the Aras river, the largest concentration of khachkars (carved cross-stones) in the world. Argam Ayvazyan inventoried the site in the 1970s, recording roughly 2,700 khachkars on three hills. Demolition was carried out in three phases by Azerbaijani military personnel, 1998, 2002 (filmed by Iranian observers across the river), and a final levelling in December 2005, when soldiers reduced the remaining stones to rubble and dumped them into the Aras. AAAS satellite analysis (2003 vs. 2009 imagery) confirmed the site had been razed and converted to a military firing range.
Related policies
Further reading
- Caucasus Heritage Watch, Monitoring Cultural Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, 2023
- European Parliament, European Parliament resolution on the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh after Azerbaijan's attack and the continuing threats against Armenia, 2023
- Robert H. Hewsen, Armenia: A Historical Atlas, 2001
- Simon Maghakyan & Sarah Pickman, A Regime Conceals Its Erasure of Indigenous Armenian Culture, 2019
- Argam Ayvazyan, Memorial Monuments and Bas-reliefs of Nakhichevan, 1987
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Geospatial Technologies Project, High-Resolution Satellite Imagery and the Destruction of Cultural Artifacts in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, 2010
- Samvel Karapetian, Stone Stories: The Armenian Cemetery of Old Julfa, 2008
- Edward O'Hara, Council of Europe / PACE, PACE rapporteur report on cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh, 2007