The Gandzasar Monastery, an outstanding monument of Armenian culture, on the left bank of the Khachen river near the village of Vank in Nagorno-Karabakh. Photo: AFP via Sputnik/R Mangasaryan
Simon Maghakyan, Asia Times: Cultural erasure may spark next Nagorno-Karabakh war
If Azerbaijan truly wants peace in Artsakh it should allow Armenians to keep five sacred Christian monuments.
Azerbaijan’s recent 44-day war on Armenia-backed Artsakh, better known by its Soviet name of Nagorno-Karabakh, resulted in a Moscow-brokered deal earlier this week that effectively ends millennia-old Armenian existence in much of the region.
In addition to land already lost on the battlefield, the deal dictates Armenians to cede to Azerbaijan many more territories by December 1. As they evacuate these lands, traumatized Armenians are leaving behind hundreds of sacred sites. Given Azerbaijan’s terrible record with cultural erasure, long-term peace may seem hopeless.
Over the past 15 years, I have been researching cultural erasure as an understudied aspect of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. My research was prompted in December 2005 when, as a 19-year-old, I watched a newly-taped video of 100 Azerbaijani soldiers deliberately destroying Djulfa, the world’s largest medieval Armenian cemetery that at its height housed 10,000 medieval khachkars (cross-stones).
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WNU Editor: Azerbaijan won this war because their oil wealth put it in the position to buy advanced weapons and they had political and military support (and encouragement) from Turkish President Erdogan. But Erdogan will not be in power forever and oil is not going to be as valuable in the future as the world slowly transitions to other energy alternatives. Once the Armenians feel that they have the military advantage. Maybe 2 or 3 decades from now. I for one would not be surprised if there is an effort to start another war.
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