“JUGHA CEMETERY”

Open Democracy, UK
April 24 2006

Photographs of the Armenian medieval cemetery at Jugha, the largest and
most precious of its kind, before and after its systematic destruction.

gha_3470.jsp

“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.

The cemetery was regarded by Armenians as the biggest and most
precious repository of medieval headstones marked with crosses –
the Armenians call them “khachkars” – of which more than 2,000 were
still there in the late Eighties. Each elaborately carved tombstone
was a masterpiece of carving.

Armenians have said that the cemetery has been 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…”

See

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and

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