Genocide is the physical annihilation of not only an ethnic or religious group but also its national and spiritual culture.
During it's centuries-old history the Armenian people has erected
numerous and diverse cultural monuments. Most of them are currently
located on the territory of Armenia - the historical cradle of
Armenians. About 1/10th of the territory of the ancient Armenia is
involved in the present territory of the Republic of Armenia due to historical events, while the rest is part of the territories of
neighbouring countries.
That's why the majority of Armenian historical monuments are located outside the borders of the present Republic of Armenia.
Armenia's neighbouring countries Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia have adopted a state policy of destruction and appropriation of the thousands of Armenian historical cultural monuments consisting of monastery complexes, churches, cross-stones (khach-kars), gravestones etc.
Unfortunately, these historical monuments, are being destructed only because they prove the Armenian presence on the historical Armenian homeland.
The Armenian inscriptions and cross-stones, the obviously
Christian section of the culture among the destroying Armenian monuments
are destructed first, and then the monasteries and churches. While the
Armenian fortresses, bridges, buildings and public constructions have
remained nearly undamaged because the Turks think that it is not
difficult to appropriate and present them as Turkish ones.
Since the 1980's as a result of the "reconstruction" of the numerous
monuments in the mentioned above countries they have been deprived of
all the features that prove their Armenian origin.
It is necessary to notice that the Armenian monuments are under
proper attention in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). With the
proposal of the IRI Board of Preservation of Monuments the involvement
of the St. Thaddeus monastery, among the other five ones, in the series
of the monuments that are under the UNESCO protection (in its World
Heritage List) witnesses the said above.
In recent years the Persian mosque erected in Yerevan in the 17th
century was repaired with cooperation of Iranian specialists.
Turkey still continues rejecting
the genocide of 1894-1896, 1909 and
1915-1921 planned by the state and annihilating the Armenian monuments
it tries to veil the existence of Armenian people and state on its
eastern territories which have a presence of about three millenniums.
The Armenian culture is part of the worldwide civilization and the
preservation of the Armenian architecture is one of the most important
tasks of the international community.
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The destruction of the Armenian stone crosses (khachkars) by the Azerbaijani government is ignored. In December 16 2005, a group of 200 Azerbaijani soldiers began destroying the surviving architectural treasures of Old Jougha (Julfa), a centuries-old Armenian cemetery located in Nakhichevan (now, a part of Azerbaijan). Back in 1648, some 10,000 khachkars at the 1,600 square meter site of the Old Jugha cemetery were recorded, many as old as the 8th century. Thousands of the Armenian graves were destroyed here in 2002 by the Azerbaijani government. The vandalism was ignored by the world.
In the recent decades, Armenian culture has faced so much vandalism that the world has developed immunity against it. Almost every other day an act of cultural genocide against the Armenian civilization happens in the neighbouring countries of Armenia, excluding Iran. Armenian churches and stone crosses suddenly "become" Georgian in Georgia; in Turkey, there is not much left to destroy (over 2000 churches and cathedrals were ruined during the Armenian genocide in 1915), but a few surviving monuments are still being converted to Mosques or to secular buildings; in Azerbaijan, the Armenian monuments are either being wiped out or "becoming" Albanian. Let alone Russia, where Armenian cemeteries are being desecrated almost every other day.
Many acts of cultural genocide against the Armenian culture have been documented, but now the world has a video to look at; a "hot action" that shows Azerbaijani soldiers erasing the last memories of the Armenian past in Nakhichevan.
To view this video, go to www.hairenikradio.com
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Armenian National Committee of Australia would like to thank Jeghische Gevorkian from www.ancestralstones.com for Providing information and photo's on the destruction of Armenian Monuments in Georgia, and also the Research for Armenian Architecture for information and photo's on the destruction of Armenian Monuments in Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Questions? send mail to
info@anc.net.au
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