06 10 18 - A CULTURAL GENOCIDE

Jean Eckian – Paris, France
A few months before the launch of the«Year of Armenia » celebrated by France, a cultural genocide (or ethnocide) occurred: the systematic elimination, by the
Azeri army, of more than 3,000 tombs on the medieval Armenian site of Julfa (Jugha in Armenian), situated in the enclave of the autonomous Republic of Nakhijevan, a territory of approximately 5,500 square kilometres situated between Armenia, Iran and Turkey. Previously a historic Armenian province, that was annexed by Russia in 1826, Nakhijevan was arbitrarily ceded by Soviet Russia to Azerbaijan on the 16th of March 1921 according to the bilateral Turkish- Russian Treaty of Moscow.
From 1918 to 1920, Nakhijevan was situated within the borders of the first Republic of Armenia.
From 1919, the Turco-Azeris orchestrated a brutal ethnic cleansing of the Armenian population and its culture in order to realise the corridor between
Turkey and Azerbaijan, while ensuring the disappearance of all Armenian traces from the region. This destruction comprises an integral part of the Armenian Genocide.
The pillage of the archeological site began in 1903, in order to facilitate the construction of a railway section tying Jugha to Hamadan (Iran). Thus already, nearly 6,000 Khatchkars (1) The Parliamentary Group Switzerland-Armenia is headed by the National
Councillors Dominique de Buman and Ueli Leuenberger.
were pulverised by the Russians. In 1998 and 2002, the Azeri army re-initiated the destruction with general indifference despite the fact that NGOs, Diaspora associations and the Armenian government collectively alerted UNESCO for several months. Within a few
weeks (December 2005), all that remained of the prestigious treasures of the Armenian cultural heritage was a firing and training ground of the Azeri army:
in fact, a military zone – today off limits.
Despite being signatory to the Convention on the Protection of Global Heritage (signed in 1993), this has not stopped Azerbaijan in its determination to
eradicate the Armenian memory, eliminating with one fell swoop a true archeological treasure and a cultural
testimonial of inestimable value.
After the Genocide of 1915, this profanation has been experienced as part of the collective truth of 7.8 million Armenians on the planet, as they have been
veritably torn from their history.
Jean Eckian – Paris, France

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