PanARMENIAN.Net

Oskanian Called Destruction of Armenian Cemetery in Nakhichevan

20.05.2006 14:34 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ When addressing the 116th session of the Council of
Ministers of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, Armenian Minister of
Foreign Affairs Vartan Oskanian addressed the issue of destruction of
Armenian khachkars in Nakhichevan. “I can only wish that the ideas and
ideals of Europe came automatically with membership. Perhaps then I
would not be here today to mourn the irreversible, irrational,
intentional destruction of a medieval Armenian cemetery on the
territory of Azerbaijan,’ he said.

The Minister emphasized, `Thousands of massive, uniqueArmenian
khachkars – stone sculptures which had survived through – centuries
are no longer there. A cemetery has been wiped out and the hillside
has been turned into a shooting range. This barbarism is a blatant
attempt to wipe out traces of Armenian presence on those lands,”
Oskanian said, reports the Press Service of the Armenian MFA.