World remained silent on Daesh-style vandalism in Julfa, says Armenian delegate to PACE

A member of Armenia’s national delegation to the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) has voiced her concerns over Azerbaijan’s cultural vandalism against the Armenian monuments of  Julfa, calling the European legislators’ attention to the urgent issue.

In a speech delivered at the Assembly’s Summer Session in Strasburg, Naria Zohrabyan raised the problem of the Azerbaijani authorities’ intentional attempts of systematically destroying the Armenian cultural heritage in the historical region of Nakhichevan.

She has shared details of her speech on Facebook.

“What Daesh [Islamic State] was doing in territories under its control - looting, destroying and selling cultural heritage - is the third source  of international terrorism after trafficking in drugs and weapons.

“And nevertheless, I would like, yet another time, to use this podium to raise a question which hasn’t been  answered to date.

“Where were you, and where was international community, when those vandals – who by the way are no less [brutal] than Daesh- were systematically destroying the historical Armenian cemetery in New Julfa starting from 1998?

“That cemetery, which was an ancient [place] back in 2005 – an exceptional cultural value of the humanity – was levelled to the ground by Azerbaijani soldiers to later become a military base.

“For seven years on end, the Azerbaijani vandals not only leveled the exceptional khackars [cross-stones] in the historical cemetery of New Julfa but also destroyed the Monastery of Holy Savior, the churches of Pombloz and St Astvatsatsin and totally erased the traces of Armenian presence, using their typical cynicism to proofread history again,” reads the text of Zohrabyan’s address.

The Armenian delegate also reminded the Assembly of the Azerbaijani authorities’ 2007blackmail which frustrated the plans of the PACE observation mission’s scheduled visit to Nakhichevan.

“Neither the Assembly nor the European Parliament ever took any active step – apart from recording that unprecedented fact of vandalism -  to prevent such brutalities from happening ever  again to destroy the cultural heritage of an entire nation.

“It was due to the international community’s declarative statements and silence that one of the most magnificent monuments of humanity, the khachkars of Julfa, were destroyed forever. That place now serves as a shooting ground for Azerbaijani vandals. While we are discussing this report now today, another cultural genocide is being committed in another part of the world.

“I don’t want us to gather here again some day to restate regretfully that we missed the time – as was in the case of New Julfa,” Zohrabyan added.