CHRISTIAN CEMETERY DESTRUCTION CAN SPOIL MOSCOW-BAKU RELATIONS

PanARMENIAN.Net
14.09.2007 14:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "The situation with the Nariman cemetery can have
a negative influence on relations between our states," said Vasily
Istratov, the Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan.

He said the Embassy received plenty of complaints about the issue.

"We sent an Embassy employee to the site when the process began. We
think that the process of reinterment should be held in accord with
the adopted rules," he said, Day.az reports.

As reported earlier, under the pretext of building a highway Baku
demolishes a Christian cemetery (the Nariman cemetery), where
Armenians, Jews and Russians were buried.

Although local authorities assure of reinterment, photos in Internet
show a complete dump. The photographers say the bulldozers just raze
the graves to the ground depriving the relatives to rebury the remains.

The city administration says exhumation and reinterment is performed
in accord with ethnic and religious traditions in the presence of
relatives of the deceased. Meanwhile, the Jewish News Agency reports
that "observance of Jewish traditions is restricted to the fact that
grave-diggers throw the ashes into sacks and then give them to the
relatives."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress