Azerbaijanis have destroyed in Shushi a monument to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, the Great Patriotic War and the first Artsakh war.
Telegram channels have released photos of the monument taken in 2020 and 2021 clearly showing that the Azerbaijanis continue to destroy Armenian cultural heritage.
In an interview with Armenian News-NEWS.am, Mayor of Shushi Artsvik Sargsyan said the monument was erected about a decade ago and added that the Azerbaijanis are currently eliminating everything Armenian in the territories that are currently under their control. Sargsyan also said the adversary has also destroyed the statues of two heroes of the USSR Nelson Stepanyan and Hovhannes Baghramyan, as well as the statue of Vazgen Sargsyan, and they also bombed an Armenian church.
The mayor added that entrance to Shushi is sometimes closed for Russian peacekeepers and that Azerbaijanis are currently destroying Armenian tombs on the road to Shushi in order to build a new structure.
Armenian News-NEWS.am also talked to Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Artsakh Lusine Gharakhanyan’s Advisor for Culture Melanya Balayan, who stated that, according to the ministry’s information, the monument is capitally damaged. She also informed that the ministry has addressed Russian peacekeepers, asking them to provide information about the state of the monuments. “The peacekeepers have promised to provide us with information,” she said.
This isn’t the first case of vandalism committed by Azerbaijan. Armenian News-NEWS.am had reported that the Azerbaijanis have desecrated the medieval Holy Savior Cathedral and the Green Church in Shushi. The adversary also continues to desecrate Armenian cross-stones and tombstones and has also zeroed the Zoravor Surb Astvatsatsin Armenian Church in Mekhakavan.
