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War Against History is No Path to Peace
by Simon Maghakyan
May 16, 2011
Five years ago in December 2005, the magnificent medieval cemetery of
Djulfa was reduced to dust in southwestern Azerbaijan. According to
video evidence, the Azerbaijani army itself had conducted the
operation to destroy the thousands of intricately carved khachkars, or
cross-stones, which were the proof and symbol of ancient Armenian
heritage in the exclave of Nakhichevan. `An absolute lie,' declared
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and then banned a European
Parliament delegation from visiting the site.
But last December, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science publicly confirmed Djulfa's complete disappearance through
satellite image comparison. A few months later, the Azeri authorities
banned the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan from visiting the site where
the cemetery existed.
`Armenians have never lived in Nakhichevan, which has been Azerbaijani
land from time immemorial, and that's why there are no Armenian
cemeteries and monuments and have never been any,' is one argument -
to quote Azeri official Hasan Zeynalov - of denial of the destruction.
Such reasoning is not meant to cover up, but rather project the intent
of the crime. Armenians, according to the official historiography in
Azerbaijan, did not live in the Caucasus before the 19th century.
While fighting history in Nakhichevan by making indigenous artifacts
disappear, Azerbaijan vows to win back the Armenian region of Nagorno
Karabakh it lost in a post-Soviet war in the 1990s. Such flare fails
to realize that Karabakh's fight for freedom wasn't a mere tussle to
revoke Joseph Stalin's 1920s awarding of Nagorno-Karabakh (along with
Nakhichevan) to Soviet Azerbaijan, but a hustle to avoid Djulfa's very
fate.
Cultural destruction in post-Soviet conflicts is not unavoidable as
seen in Armenia's ongoing restoration of Azerbaijani mosques in
Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan's own 2004 renovation of the Armenian
church, built in 1887, in the capital Baku. Drawing from the latter,
Azerbaijan's government can reverse its war on history by facilitating
an impartial investigation into the demolition that occurred at
Djulfa; prosecuting those who gave orders and supervised the
destruction; and designating the site where the cemetery existed as an
archaeological landmark.
Baku must acknowledge that a war against history is no path to peace.
War Against History is No Path to Peace
by Simon Maghakyan
May 16, 2011
Five years ago in December 2005, the magnificent medieval cemetery of
Djulfa was reduced to dust in southwestern Azerbaijan. According to
video evidence, the Azerbaijani army itself had conducted the
operation to destroy the thousands of intricately carved khachkars, or
cross-stones, which were the proof and symbol of ancient Armenian
heritage in the exclave of Nakhichevan. `An absolute lie,' declared
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and then banned a European
Parliament delegation from visiting the site.
But last December, the American Association for the Advancement of
Science publicly confirmed Djulfa's complete disappearance through
satellite image comparison. A few months later, the Azeri authorities
banned the US Ambassador to Azerbaijan from visiting the site where
the cemetery existed.
`Armenians have never lived in Nakhichevan, which has been Azerbaijani
land from time immemorial, and that's why there are no Armenian
cemeteries and monuments and have never been any,' is one argument -
to quote Azeri official Hasan Zeynalov - of denial of the destruction.
Such reasoning is not meant to cover up, but rather project the intent
of the crime. Armenians, according to the official historiography in
Azerbaijan, did not live in the Caucasus before the 19th century.
While fighting history in Nakhichevan by making indigenous artifacts
disappear, Azerbaijan vows to win back the Armenian region of Nagorno
Karabakh it lost in a post-Soviet war in the 1990s. Such flare fails
to realize that Karabakh's fight for freedom wasn't a mere tussle to
revoke Joseph Stalin's 1920s awarding of Nagorno-Karabakh (along with
Nakhichevan) to Soviet Azerbaijan, but a hustle to avoid Djulfa's very
fate.
Cultural destruction in post-Soviet conflicts is not unavoidable as
seen in Armenia's ongoing restoration of Azerbaijani mosques in
Nagorno-Karabakh, and Azerbaijan's own 2004 renovation of the Armenian
church, built in 1887, in the capital Baku. Drawing from the latter,
Azerbaijan's government can reverse its war on history by facilitating
an impartial investigation into the demolition that occurred at
Djulfa; prosecuting those who gave orders and supervised the
destruction; and designating the site where the cemetery existed as an
archaeological landmark.
Baku must acknowledge that a war against history is no path to peace.