Armenia’s response to Azerbaijan’s recent vandalistic destruction of hundreds of medieval Armenian cross-stones and the decision of converting Baku’s Armenian church to a library is surprising. Armenia’s government allocated 2 mln 308 thousand drams (5,100 USD) on 4 May 2006 to register and document the existence of Azerbaijani cemeteries and historic-cultural monuments (though these are not too many) on the territories of the Republics of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Of course the move is political, and of course the decision wants to show the international community that Armenia is not like Azerbaijan. But I wish Azerbaijanis at least wanted to pretend that they are not destroying Armenian monuments. The reality is far worse. Azerbaijan’s government does not even acknowledge the existence (well, perhaps not any more?!) of thousands of Armenians monuments in the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan, let alone the need to register or preserve those.

I so hope that the war between the two countries does not restart. But if it starts, the one good outcome will be (hopefully) the persecution of Azerbaijani officials who are directly responsible for the destruction of Azerbaijan’s Armenian heritage.

Link

World watches in silence as Azerbaijan wipes out Armenian culture
Western governments have failed to condemn the destruction of a unique medieval cemetery by Azerbaijani soldiers

By Lucian Harris | Posted 25 May 2006
The Art Newspaper, United Kingdom
http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article01.asp?id=281

LONDON. A delegation of European members of Parliament was last month refused access to Djulfa, in the Nakhichevan region of Azerbaijan, to investigate reports that an ancient Armenian Christian cemetery has been destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers.

Armenia says the Christian cemetery of Jugha, dating from the ninth to 16th centuries, has been completely destroyed by Azerbaijani soldiers.

The delegation of ten MEPs from the commission on EU-Armenia parliamentary co-operation travelled to Armenia on 17 April following a resolution passed by the EP’s conference of presidents on 6 April. An EP spokesman told The Art Newspaper that when the party tried to enter Nakhichevan, it was “opposed by the Azerbaijan authorities”.

This was despite the Muslim country’s outright denial that the cemetery has been destroyed—and despite the fact that Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe and thus committed to respecting cultural heritage.

According to witnesses, as quoted in Armenian reports, in a three-day operation last December, Azerbaijani soldiers armed with sledgehammers obliterated the remnants of the Djulfa cemetery (known as Jugha in Armenian). Until the early 20th century it contained around 10,000 khachkars, dedicatory monuments unique to medieval Armenian culture. They are typically carved with a cross surrounded by intricate interlacing floral designs.

A great number of khachkars, the majority of which date from the 15th to 16th centuries, were destroyed in 1903-04 during the construction of a railway, and by the early 1970s only 2,707 were recorded.

Armenian culture has always had a precarious existence sandwiched between Russia and the Islamic spheres of Turkey and Iran. The Armenians are still fighting to get acknowledgement of the genocide of their people by the Ottoman Turks which reached its peak in 1915. After 1921, when the southern enclaves of Nakhichevan and Nagorno Karabakh were absorbed into Soviet Azerbaijan, many Armenians fled the area and much of their cultural heritage was destroyed. By the late 1980s when the Soviet Union crumbled, less than 4,000 Armenians remained in Nakhichevan—so few that the exclave avoided the ethnic warfare that exploded in Karabakh where a larger Armenian population remained under the administration of Muslim Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani army began clearing the Jugha cemetery in 1998, removing 800 of the khachkars before complaints by Unesco brought a temporary halt. But the destruction commenced again in November 2002, and by the time the incident was written up by Icomos in its World Report on Monuments and Sites in Danger for that year, the 1500-year-old cemetery was described as “completely flattened”. It is not clear exactly how many khachkars were left, but on 14 December 2005, witnesses in Armenian reports said that soldiers had demolished the remaining stones, loading them onto trucks and dumping them in the river, actions that were filmed from across the river in Iran by an Armenian Film crew, and aired on the Boston-based online television station Hairenik.

Armenians say the destruction of the Jugha cemetery represents the final move in Azerbaijan’s systematic cleansing of Armenian cultural heritage from Nakhichevan, mostly carried out between 1998 and 2002.

On a visit to Armenia in March, the director of the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Mikhail Piotrovsky, whose mother is Armenian, reacted to the destruction by likening it to the Taleban’s obliteration of the Bamiyan Buddhas. His comments elicited an angry response in the Azerbaijani press. However, the lack of international condemnation of Azerbaijan’s actions has been a source of frustration to many Armenians. Baroness Cox, a long-standing campaigner for the protection of Armenian heritage in Azerbaijan who has urged the British government to take action, told The Art Newspaper that, despite the influential Armenian Diaspora, both the US and UK administrations are more concerned with cultivating close relations with oil-rich Azerbaijan and its ally Turkey, than with Armenia.

Azerbaijani soldiers photographed destroying headstones at Jugha

A response issued by the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Brussels in January, insisted that Armenian allegations were made “to delude the international community” and detract attention from “atrocities committed by the Armenian troops in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, where no single Azerbaijani monument has been left undamaged”. It also contained an implied historical claim on the Jugha cemetery stating that it was not Armenian but created by “Caucasian Albanians”.

The Azerbaijani allegations, which claim the destruction of hundreds of mosques, religious schools, cemeteries and museums in the Shusha, Yerevan, Zangazur and Icmiadzin districts of Armenia, have undoubtedly compounded the reluctance of international organisations to get involved in a situation described to The Art Newspaper by Guido Carducci, the head of Unesco’s International Standards Section, as “a political hot potato”.

According to Baroness Cox, even during the war, mosques in Armenia were generally protected by the Christian population, but with so many emotive claims and counter claims being made, and both sides accusing each other of rewriting history, non-partisan monitoring and verification of all alleged cultural crimes seems more important than ever. Speaking to The Art Newspaper, Mikhail Piotrovsky said: “Any destruction of the cultural heritage is a crime, whether that heritage be Armenian, Russian, Azerbaijani, or Iraqi. The cultural heritage belongs to the entire world, not just to one nation.”

There is a plague at Colorado’s State Capitol’s first floor in memory of former governor Ralph Carr. The plague calls him a humane person who did not adopt the American bigotry toward Japanese-Americans during WWII.

During the War, Americans of Japanese origin were sent to concentration camps. Colorado’s governor was the only official who not only welcomed the internees to Colorado, but also made sure that they were treated with respect and honor. Governor Carr said in a speech to the people of his state:

If you harm them, you must harm me. I was brought up in a small town where I knew the shame and dishonor of race hatred. I grew to despise it because it threatened the happiness of you and you and you.

Back in those days the concept of “Human Rights” was unheard of. Governor Carr was a pioneer of human rights, a just person. His righteousness cost him reelection. His honorable actions killed his career. But Governor Carr is one of the most, if not the most, respected leader in Colorado’s history.

There will be a plague at U.S. State Department’s first floor in honor of former Ambassador John Evans in several years. The plague will call him a courageous person who did not adopt the American political injustice toward the Armenian people and their memory.

John Evans refused from taking the order of his bosses to avoid using the term “genocide” while speaking about the Armenian holocaust. The Republic of Turkey gets very mad when a country uses that word: that is why America does not want to have a sick turkey. John Evans did not take that order. John Evans, America’s Ambassador to Armenia, has been recalled by President George W. Bush.

To see the plague in memory of John Evans at the U.S. State Department, visit the building several years from now. For now, that plague is in the heart of every living Armenian in this world.

Turkish pilot Lieutenant Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir is carried to a hospital in Mugla, Turkey May 23, 2006. Greek and Turkish fighter planes collided in mid-air on Tuesday while shadowing each other in the southern Aegean, where the two NATO allies have long disputed control over airspace. REUTERS/Ihlas News Agency

More from the New York Times: In April alone, Turkish jets violated Greek airspace no less than 53 times, Hellenic Air Force officials said today.

Armenia was just announced the 8th place in EuroVision's song contest. This means next year Armenia will directly get to the final.

The first place is Finland… I had the "chance" to watch their performance online. I can't believe they got any votes, really.

Finland won… On the other hand, if George Bush can be America's President, why can't Finland win the Eurovision?

Surprisingly, Armenia got 10 votes from Turkey (the maximum votes a country can get is 10). Russia voted for Armenia (12 votes).

Why Turkey gave so many surprising votes to Armenia? According to me, it is because there are thousands of "covered" Armenians in Turkey, namely people who changed their identity during the Genocide to stay. According to my Mom, Andre's song was half-Turkish, that's why we got so many votes from Turkey.

In any case, Andre was great. Finland sucked too much, but they won. Russia is the second place.

3:00am, 21 May 2006, Yerevan (Armenian) – Littleton, Colorado – Athens, Greece

Armen Petrossian, the world's leading distributor of caviar, is Armenian.

Monaco, MONACO: Armen Petrossian poses 19 May 2006 in front of his new restaurant in Monaco. Petrossian, the world's leading distributor of caviar, is to expand its cafe-bar empire by selling gourmet fish eggs in China and Russia, whose increasingly wealthy populations have a penchant for luxury goods. Petrossian currently owns two restaurants, in Paris and New York, and five boutiques, in the French cities of Paris and Lyon as well as New York, Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the United States. The family-run business, founded in Paris by the current president's Armenian father and uncle, Moucheg and Melkoum, last year posted sales totalling 40 million euros (48 million dollars), half of which were earned outside France, mainly in the United States. AFP PHOTO JACQUES MUNCH (Photo credit should read JACQUES MUNCH/AFP/Getty Images)

If you think that all Armenian religious monuments are being wiped off from the face of the earth in Muslim Azerbaijan, you are damn wrong.

One of the Armenian churches in Azerbaijan, for exampple, has been restored, and a Muslim leader called that act “a triumph of Azerbaijan's tolerance.”

Norwegians restored the church: the same Norwegians who one year ago stopped the reconstruction due to what they called “vandalism” against the Armenian heritage. The church was an Armenian one, but its Armenian identity was neutralized by destroying the Armenian inscriptions, and now it is called an Udi (Albanian) church. The same ole story folks, the same ole story.

The raped Armenian inscriptions

The website of “Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise” published a photo of the “reconstructed” church on 19 April 2006, stating “Today it is exactly a month to the opening of the newly restored Udin Albanian Chirch in Nich.”

The Armenian face of the church before the reconstruction

So what happened to “humanitarian” Norwegians to change their mind and support what they themselves called “vandalism” a year ago? Did they think this was a better way than destroying thousands of medieval Armenian cross-stones?

The church after Norwegian "reconstruction"

Here is the newest article from the Azerbaijani media regarding the “restoration”

Restoration of Albanian Church Great Day for Udins
BakuToday.net
20/05/2006 07:46

[…]

The Director of the Norwegian humanitarian mission in Azerbaijan, [b]Alf Henri, expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan's authorities for creating conditions for restoration of the church.[/b]

Deputy Chairman of the Caucasian Muslims Department, Salman Musayev, called the church's opening ceremony a triumph of Azerbaijan's tolerance.

Religious services in the church will be held in accordance with Orthodox Church's canons. Religious men will be trained in Russia's spiritual seminaries.

Here is an article from Agence France Press from last year regarding the “restoration”

"Christian minority in Azerbaijan gets rid of Armenian eye sore"

(AFP, February 17, 2005)

When a Christian people in this predominantly Muslim republic ground away the Armenian inscriptions from the walls of a church and tombs last month to erase evidence linking them to Azerbaijan's foe, they thought they had the interests of their small community in mind.

[…]

Since then nearly everything associated with Armenia in Azerbaijan has been wiped away, although hundreds of thousands of Armenians lived here before the war.

Armenian-sounding city names have been changed, streets named after Armenians have been replaced with politically correct Azeri surnames, while Soviet history glorifying Armenian communist activists has been rewritten in school textbooks.

But the white-stone church in Nij, some two centuries old, had not been tampered with until the Udi undertook to reconstruct it with help from the state financed Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise (NHE).

"It was a beautiful inscription, 200 years old, it even survived the war," Norway's Ambassador to Azerbaijan Steinar Gil told AFP. "This is an act of vandalism and Norway in no way wants to be associated with it."

[…]

"They think they have erased a reminder of being Armenian … instead they have taken away the chance to have a good image when the church is inaugurated," the director of the NHE in Azerbaijan, Alf Henry Rasmussen said, adding that a visit to the church by Norway's prime minister will probably now be cancelled.

My friend from Yerevan just informed that Andre, the singer who represents Armenia at the Eurovision Song Contest, passed the first round. They pronounced Andre's name at the end, so people were really nervous.

Congratulations and good luck, Andre!

[2:56 a.m., 19 May 2006 in Yerevan, Armenia]

An American teacher, Joshua Haglund, was killed in Armenia two years ago. The likely reason of the murder was that the guy was gay.

Not surprisingly, the murder was not uncovered. Perhaps, it was done by one of the “cools,” a son of a government official or a mob.

Joshua (the guy on the left) with Mount Ararat in the background in Armenia before his murder (from his memorial site)

Now a bill is proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives to investigate the death and to authorize “$250,000 for a scholarship fund in Haglund's name at the University of Minnesota for study abroad and diversity training programs.”

Haglund’s family has also a memorial site in his memory: http://www.joshuahaglund.com/, and a blog: http://jazzyjoshua.blogspot.com/. Those who want to support the Fund, can visit https://www.foundation.umn.edu/pls/dmsn/onl…oker?owner=JOSH.

Thanks to a Jew, I learned about the website of the “Armenian Aryans.”

I am impressed that the “Aryans” in Armenia are that smart: they have even come up with a website! Wow!

So who are these people and why are there anti-Semites among Armenians? These are not questions that I can answer, but I can certainly argue that “Armenian Aryans” are harmful to Armenia. I will not argue this in terms of human rights, since it will be stupid for even trying to explain that hating a cultural, ethnic or religious group is wrong. People who are people already know that, people who are not people yet don’t know yet or will never know that.

Let’s start with the leader of the “Armenian Aryans:” Armen Avetisyan. I don’t really know him personally, but I have seen a booklet long time ago that had something about him. Two things I remember were that he had no education and that he fought for the Karabakh war. Praise to him for the second one and pity to him for the first one.

Well, let us see what else we have on him. Perhaps I should post a picture from their website (which was originally posted by www.ArmeniaNow.com) so that we can see his face.

This rather Jewish looking person is Armen Avetisyan. He was arrested in Armenia last year for his anti-Semitic remarks. I have heard from an acquaintance of his that Armen has changed some of his anti-Semitic views after coming out of jail. I need to check this, though.

So why are “Aryan Armenians” harmful to Armenia? Well, the excerpt below is from the “mission” of the “Aryans:”

“We have to end the Zionist oppression on governments and stop organized Judo-Christian religion which has dominated Armenia and Europe for over two millennia and bought world to its most darkest era.”

Despite the fact that there should be a comma before “which,” please also notice that the organization fights against Christianity, the 1700-year-old Armenian religion that helped us survive and kept us Armenians.

Another thing that I was disappointed with their website was that it listed Asala (the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia) along with Hitler and the American Nazi Party under “useful links.” Asala has been known for being pro-Palestinian, but I am not sure how their administration would react to see themselves listed with anti-Semitists. Oh, I forgot, Asala is a *terrorist* organization that brought the world’s attention to the Armenian Genocide.

Long story short, “Aryan Armenians” suck, even though they are capable of making a website.

p.s. I have a suspicion who the creator of the website is: an Armenian from California who covers under a common nickname… Oooo, now I will be making a lot of enemies. Perhaps, no. I know a lot of “Aryans” in Armenia.