By Lara Syuni

YEREVAN, December 16 — The special issue of the magazine “Research on Armenian Architecture” (RAA), which will be released in January of 2011, will be entirely devoted to the current state of the Armenian culture and historical monuments in Azerbaijan.

“Pictorial materials about the current state of these monuments will be published in the issue, moreover, the majority of them was secretly photographed by foreign citizens in Azerbaijan,” said Samvel Karapetyan — the head of RAA — on Thursday, during a press conference.

The photographs comprise the exploded church of Etnasar (Getashen), the ruined Armenian churches in Azerbaijani villages of Azad and Kamo, and the former Armenian church of St. Hovhannes (Gandzak), which, after removing all the Armenian inscriptions, was turned into a concert hall.

According to the experts from the Republic of Armenia, earlier there were more than 10 thousand Armenian cultural-historical monuments in Azerbaijan, but now the vast majority of them no longer exist.

One of the most outrageous cases was the extinction of thousands of unique Armenian medieval khachkars (cross-stones) in the ancient cemetery in Old Djugha, Nakhichevan.

With the connivance from the Azerbaijani authorities, the cemetery was destroyed from 1998 to 2005 and turned into an Azerbaijani military training ground.

Photo credit — http://www.world66.com

Yerevan Report