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Cultural destruction, a genocide continued
Written by Raffi Sarkissian, Contributor
Wednesday, 01 February 2006
History leaves its tangible marks on our world through the remnants of architecture and artifacts, which become valuable information for individuals researching the social sciences. For example, the Coliseum in Italy with its magnificent design tells us much about the culture, architectural motif and favorite past times of the ancient Romans.
Many historians of ancient history have indubitably learned a great deal from architecture such as the above example. However, in certain circumstances, when these invaluable pieces of history lie in occupied or disputed territory, they are systematically destroyed and removed from the face of the earth in attempts to remove, along with them, the cultural and historical realities and pasts of certain regions. This is especially true when the country committing these acts of cultural genocide is working diligently to hide a historical truth.
I speak of this problem because of a very recent incident in Old Djulfa, Nakhichevan, an Azerbaijani occupied territory, just south west of Armenia. This region is historically Armenian, along with much of Eastern Turkey. After the forcible removal and deportations of the Armenians from their native lands, during the Armenian Genocide in 1915, these lands were left vastly marked by the remnants of the Armenian culture, religion and architecture mainly in the form of ancient churches, cemeteries and cross stones.
On Dec. 15, 2005, about 100 Azeri servicemen were caught, photographed and videotaped by onlookers from the Iranian boarder, while they desecrated and destroyed a 400-year-old Armenian cemetery filled with hand carved traditional Armenian cross stones, the second of such attempts in the last three years.
Both the Turkish and Azerbaijani governments have adopted a policy to destroy the abundant historical and cultural wealth situated within their territories. These are treasures, which belongs as much to all of humanity as to the Armenians themselves. Churches dating back to the eight and ninth century have been sentenced to destruction and neglect, or converted to stables and or target practice locations. The ancient city of Ani, today in Eastern Turkey, which was known for its 1,001 churches, is now barely marked by a handful of half destroyed churches. It is only a matter of time that these remnants too will be destroyed if serious action against this violence is not taken by the international community. This is an attempt to remove all traces of an Armenian history in these regions in order to further the Turkish and Azerbaijani genocide denial campaigns.
The destruction of these historical and sacred sites must be exposed and stopped, and the awareness of such events across the globe must be spread worldwide. As civilized human beings, we have learned to treat and respect the cultural, religious and ethnic diversity of this world with dignity, and we must not allow such forms of uncivilized and intentional destruction to occur. Destruction such as this promotes hatred, racism and pain, and only furthers the ambitions of oppressive and genocidal governments.
Re: Видеоматериал - уничтожениe армянских хачкаров в Нахичеване
Re: Видеоматериал - уничтожениe армянских хачкаров в Нахичеване
