NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Save Armenian Monuments condemned the Azerbaijani government's February 3 launch of a "working group of specialists to remove the fictitious traces written by Armenians."

Azerbaijan announced the heritage purge organ during the visit of top European Union officials Kadri Simson and Olivér Várhelyi, who offered a €2 billion aid package to Azerbaijan.

The purge organ plans to eliminate the entire indigenous epigraphic heritage of the disputed Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh that Azerbaijan partially conquered in late 2020. The official justification for the erasure is a state-sponsored conspiracy theory in Azerbaijan that reimagines ancient Armenian monuments as stolen from a long-extinct culture.

"We are nauseated by Azerbaijan's brazen belligerence to continue its targeting of Armenian sacred sites," remarked Dr. Virginia Davies, President of Save Armenian Monuments. "The purge organ does not just violate the December 7, 2021 International Court of Justice decision that ordered Azerbaijan to protect Armenian monuments," continued Davies, "it is tantamount to a declaration of genocide, emboldened by the West's shameless courting of Azerbaijan despite the latter's 2020 aggression against Armenians and 1997-2006 state-sanctioned flattening of every Armenian cultural monument in the exclave of Nakhichevan."

As Hyperallergic art magazine revealed on February 4 in its "Emboldened by Ukraine Crisis, Azerbaijan Escalates its War on Armenian Heritage Sites" report, Azerbaijan appears to be reassured by the €2 billion EU aid package and anticipated USA military aid release, which are perceived as vindications of the 2020 aggression on Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Washington and EU are supporting a genocidal dictatorship that thrives on getting away with anti-Armenian crimes, while positioning themselves as defenders of democracies and oppressed peoples elsewhere. This tacit approval of the heritage purge committee is particularly shameful coming from President Joe Biden, who as a candidate criticized Turkey's military support and mercenary supply for Azerbaijan in 2020 as 'irresponsible' but now appears uninterested in following his own advice," remarked Davies.

Founded in 2020, Save Armenian Monuments LLC, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization and subsidiary of the Eastern Prelacy, pursues the sustained safeguarding of in situ Armenian Christian heritage at risk, in particular protection and awareness-building of at-risk churches, monasteries, gravesites, stone crosses, and other sacred sites and structures located in Artsakh and the wider region, through activities including pilgrimages and education. Headquartered in New York, Save Armenian Monuments operates in collaboration with relevant institutional and individual stakeholders. 

SOURCE Save Armenian Monuments