On September 19, 2023, the Turkish-Azerbaijani terrorist tandem unleashed yet another large-scale war against the fully blockaded Artsakh. During the war, the primary targets of the Azerbaijani armed forces were not military facilities, but rather the civilian population and public infrastructure-an open violation of international law that falls under the category of war crimes.
As a result of the war, Artsakh was temporarily occupied, while the Armenians of Artsakh were forcibly displaced from their ancestral homeland of millennia. Thus, the dictatorial regime in Baku is not only committing genocide, but also deliberately striking at the very foundations of Armenian identity.
Since September 27, 2020, Azerbaijan’s policy has continued with unprecedented scope: the systematic destruction of Artsakh’s historical and cultural monuments, including churches, khachkars (cross-stones), tombstones, residential quarters, entire settlements, cultural centers, and more. These monuments are not only an inseparable part of the Armenian people’s heritage, but also of world civilization, and their destruction constitutes one of the most glaring examples of cultural genocide.
The volume of documented cases and recorded violations makes it possible to unequivocally assert that one of the largest cultural genocides on a global scale is being carried out in Artsakh by Azerbaijan. The Baku regime has adopted a consistent strategy of erasing cultural heritage, aiming to eliminate every trace of the Armenian people’s historical presence in Artsakh.
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All this is unfolding amid the disproportionate response, inaction, and, in many cases, criminal silence of the international community. Moreover, international organizations often limit themselves to protocol statements, deliberately avoiding to name what is happening by its proper definition-genocide and cultural genocide. Such an approach not only encourages Baku’s criminal policies but also creates a dangerous precedent for future atrocities.
Artsakh Cultural Heritage Ombudsman Hovik Avanesov