{"id":22911,"date":"2019-03-02T09:06:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-02T09:06:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=22911"},"modified":"2019-03-02T09:07:15","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T09:07:15","slug":"22911","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=22911","title":{"rendered":"Monumental f\u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533rlust: Azerbajdzjan och “det v\u0569\u0083\u0539)rsta kulturmordet i det 21: a \u0569\u0083\u0539(rhundradet”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A damning new report details an attempted erasure by Azerbaijan of its Armenian cultural heritage, including the destruction of tens of thousands of Unesco-protected ancient stone carvings<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Dale<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dale Berning Sawa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fri 1 Mar 2019 13.29 GMTLast modified on Fri 1 Mar 2019 15.58 GMT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Some<\/a>
 Lost to time \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u00bb some of Djulfa\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s thousands of khachkars, circa 16th century, photographed in the 1970s before their destruction. Photograph: \u0569\u0082\u0539. Argam Ayvazyan archives, 1970-81<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 21st century\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s most extensive campaign of cultural cleansing to date may not have happened in Syria, as you might assume, but a largely ignored part of the Transcaucasian plateau.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enligt\u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0 <\/font><\/font>en l\u0569\u0083\u0539(ng rapport som <\/font><\/font><\/a>offentliggjordes<\/font><\/font><\/a> \u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0i\u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0 <\/font>kontexten <\/font><\/a><\/font>Hyperallergi <\/font><\/font><\/a>c<\/font><\/font><\/a> \u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0i februari har den azerbajdzjanska regeringen under de senaste 30 \u0569\u0083\u0539(ren engagerat sig i en systematisk radering av landets historiska armeniska arv. Denna tj\u0569\u0083\u0539)nsteman, om \u0569\u0083\u0539)n hemlig, f\u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533rst\u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533relse av kulturella och religi\u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533sa artefakter \u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533verstiger den islamiska statens sj\u0569\u0083\u0539)lvpromotionsdynamik av\u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0 <\/font><\/font>Palmy <\/font><\/font><\/a>ra,<\/font><\/font><\/a> enligt rapportens f\u0569\u0083\u0539\u0533rfattare, Simon Maghakyan och Sarah Pickman.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maghakyan, a Denver-based analyst, activist and lecturer in political science, labels it \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093the greatest cultural genocide of the 21st century\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d. He grew up with stories about his father visiting a beautiful, mysterious place called Djulfa. Located in the Azerbaijani enclave of Nakhichevan, on the banks of the Araxes river, it was the site of a medieval necropolis, the largest ancient Armenian cemetery in the world. Visitors through the centuries, from Alexandre de Rhodes to William Ouseley, had noted the remote location\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s splendour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its height, the graveyard counted around 10,000 khachkars, or cross stones, standing to attention, the earliest dating back to the 6th century. Unique to Armenian burial traditions, these distinctive tall steles of pinkish red and yellow stone feature crosses, figurative scenes and symbols, and highly decorative relief patterning. By the time the Soviets formalised the autonomous regions of Nagorno-Karabakh and Nakhichevan in 1920, after decades of plunder, less than 3,000 khachkars remained. Subsequent episodic vandalism led Unesco in <\/a>2000 to order<\/a> that the monuments be preserved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n