[MSN] Caucasus. A Medieval Cemetery Vanishes Without a Trace

Tue May 16 05:31:18 CEST 2006

May 16, 2006. Issue 3411. Page 4. 

Aa Aa Aa  

A Medieval Cemetery Vanishes Without a Trace

By Idrak Abbasov 
IWPR   

IWPR

The site where the Jugha cemetery once stood on Azerbaijan's border with
Iran. Armenians said the cemetery was razed, but no one was able to visit
the area to confirm the claim until April.:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/16/015.html

AZERBAIJANI-IRANIAN BORDER -- It has become one of the most bitterly
divisive issues in the Caucasus -- but up until now no one has been able to
clear up the mystery surrounding the fate of the famous medieval Christian
cemetery of Jugha in Azerbaijan.

Armenians regarded the cemetery as the biggest and most precious repository
of medieval headstones marked with crosses -- called khachkars -- more than
2,000 of which were still there in the late 1980s. Each elaborately carved
tombstone was a masterpiece of carving.

Armenians say the cemetery was razed, comparing its destruction to the
demolition of two giant Buddha figures by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Azerbaijan has hit back by accusing Armenia of scaremongering and of
destroying Azerbaijani monuments on its own territory.

Now an IWPR contributor has become the first journalist to visit the site of
the cemetery on Azerbaijan's border with Iran -- and has confirmed that the
graveyard has completely vanished. 

The European Parliament, UNESCO and Britain's House of Lords have all taken
an interest in the fate of the Jugha cemetery. But so far no one has been
allowed to visit the site itself.

If international observers can confirm that the cemetery has been razed, it
is sure to spark a new high-voltage row between Azerbaijan and Armenia,
which have engaged in a bitter war of words since fighting ended in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 1994.

The IWPR contributor was accompanied by two Azerbaijani security service
officers and was restricted in his movements. He was unable to go down to
the River Araxes, the site of the former cemetery, as it lies in a protected
border zone. But he was able to see clearly that there was no cemetery
there. 

This is one of the most inaccessible parts of Europe, located in the
Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, which is surrounded by Armenia and Iran
and -- because of the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani dispute -- is only
accessible from the rest of Azerbaijan by air.

Old Julfa, or Jugha as it is known by the Armenians, was a flourishing
Armenian town in the Middle Ages. But in 1604, Shah Abbas of Persia forcibly
resettled the inhabitants to Isfahan, where to this day there is still an
Armenian quarter, New Julfa. The ruined town and its cemetery remained and
were visited by many. Britain's Sir William Ouseley arrived in July 1812 and
found "a city now in perfect decay," and the remains of what had been one of
the most famous stone bridges in the world.

Historian Argam Aivazian, the principal expert on the Armenian monuments of
Nakhichevan, said Jugha was a unique monument of medieval art and the
largest Armenian cemetery in existence. Aivazian last visited the site in
1987, when it was still mostly intact.

Artist Lusik Aguletsi, a Nakhichevan-born Armenian, also last visited the
cemetery in 1987, although she was under escort. "There is nothing like it
in Armenia," she said. "It was a thrilling sight. Two hills completely
covered in khachkars. We weren't allowed to draw or photograph them." 

Armenian experts now accuse Azerbaijan of a deliberate act of cultural
vandalism. "The destruction of the khachkars of Old Jugha means the
destruction of an entire phenomenon in the history of humanity, because they
are not only proof of the culture of the people who created them, they are
also symbols that tell us about a particular cultural epoch," said Hranush
Kharatian, head of Armenia's state department for national and religious
minorities. 

Photos copyright Argam Aivazian:
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/16/015.html

A view of the medieval Christian cemetery and its elaborately carved
tombstones marked with crosses in the 1970s.

Although the historical provenance of the cemetery is disputed in
Azerbaijan, its cultural importance is confirmed by the 1986 Azerbaijani
book "The Architecture of Ancient and Early Medieval Azerbaijan" by Davud
Akhundov. The book says the stones are of Caucasian Albanian origin, in line
with the official theory taught in Azerbaijan that Christian monuments there
were not the work of Armenians but of Albanians. Caucasian Albanians, a
people unconnected with Albania, lived in the southeastern Caucasus, but
their culture began to die out in the Middle Ages.

Husein Shukuraliev, editor of a local newspaper, Voice of Araxes, said the
destruction of the cemetery began as early as 1828, when Azerbaijan became
part of the Russian empire. Thousands of tombstones were then destroyed at
the turn of the 20th century when a railway was constructed, he said.

However, other people said there has been more recent destruction of the
cemetery. A man named Intigam who repairs tin cans in Baku said he was
posted near Julfa with the Soviet Army in 1988 and 1989. In late 1989,
Azerbaijani politician Nemat Panakhov dismantled the border-posts on the
border with Iran. Intigam said part of the Julfa cemetery was destroyed at
that time.

Panakhov declined to comment.

A second witness, who asked that his name not be published, said there were
khachkar stones on the site up until 2002, but they were removed on orders
of the Nakhichevan military command.

Armenian architect Arpiar Petrossyan said he visited the Iranian side of the
border in 1998 with a friend to view monuments there. Looking across the
river into Azerbaijan, he said, they noticed a flat-bed train apparently
removing cross-stones from the cemetery. 

Armenian Deputy Culture Minister Gagik Gyurdjian said Armenia raised the
alarm in 1998. "Then we got the entire international community up in arms
and stopped the destruction. But in 2003 the destruction started again," he
said.

In recent months, the propaganda war over Jugha has reached a new intensity
-- just as Karabakh peace talks between Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Robert
Kocharian ran into trouble. Aliyev angrily denied Armenian claims about the
Jugha cemetery last month, calling them "a lie and a provocation."

International institutions are now demanding to be allowed to visit the site
of the cemetery. However, Azerbaijan is insisting that it will only accept a
European parliamentary delegation if it visits Armenia as well. Azerbaijan's
Foreign Ministry says 1,587 mosques and 23 madrassas have been destroyed in
Armenia. 

Avetik Ishkhanian, president of Armenia's Helsinki Committee, blames the
international community for not reacting sooner to the razing of Jugha,
contrasting the response with the outcry that followed the Taliban's
demolition of the Buddhas of Bamian in 2001. "Why has there not been the
same reaction in this case?" he said. 

Reporting also by Shahin Rzayev and Jasur Mamedov in Baku; and Seda
Muradian, Narine Avetian and Karine Ter-Sahakian in Yerevan. This article
comes from the Caucasus Reporting Service of the Institute for War and Peace
Reporting, www.iwpr.net.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/05/16/015.html