Author: Zhanna Nahapetian

Since Azerbaijani forces invaded the Republic of Artsakh, also known as Nagorno-Karabakh, on September 19, forcing more than 100,000 Armenians from their ancestral homelands in an act that has been described as “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide,” at least three Armenian cemeteries and one 19th-century church in the region have been damaged by new and expanding construction work. In addition, numerous other churches, cemeteries, and other historic structures are increasingly being threatened with damage and destruction by encroaching Azeri activities.

The recent violations add to a slew of attacks on Armenian religious and cultural heritage sites in the region in the wake of the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, marking a renewed effort by the Azerbaijani government to erase the existence of Indigenous Armenians from the landscape.

Satellite monitoring by the Cornell University-based research program Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) detected that between October 5 and November 3, bulldozers paved a road through the Yerevan Gates Cemetery in Shushi, also known as Shusha in Azerbaijani, according to the group’s December report. Home to 78 tombstones with Armenian inscriptions dating from 1802 to 1913, the burial ground is obscured by thick forest, making it unclear for researchers to identify which tombstones were damaged. 

Armenian inscriptions in religious sites have frequently been targeted by the forces of the Azerbaijani dictatorship, which is seeking to erase these markers of Armenian history. Back in 2019, Simon Maghakyan and Sarah Pickman reported on these pages about the eradication of thousands of monuments of Armenian heritage across the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhichevan, a report later verified by Caucasus Heritage Watch. Using a pseudo-scientific theory that these traces of Armenian existence are fictitious, the Azerbaijani government has supported the desecration and cultural reappropriation of churches and tombstones under the guise of so-called restoration.

CHW researchers also reported damage to another historic site in Shushi during October, the Ghazanchets’ots Cemetery. The gravesite, which already has deteriorating tombstones, was recently targeted by construction vehicles and used as a dumping ground for debris. In addition, researchers noted that satellite photos taken on November 3 showed demolition debris recently dispensed onto the original base of the Meghretsots St. Astvatsatsin Church, a Shushi religious site that was initially founded in 1838. After sustaining immense damage under Soviet rule so that only the tabernacle and altar spaced remained, the site was converted into a movie theater in the 1960s until the Artsakh Republic’s Service for the Protection of Historical Environment excavated the church’s foundation in 2017.

On top of these cases of new damage, an ongoing construction project northeast of a cemetery near Vazgenashen/Hajisamly has resulted in significant wreckage to the area. Home to carved cross stoneheads known as khachkars, the historic burial site was initially threatened by encroaching construction activities in June before sustaining additional damage from construction activities this fall.

“The strategies of desecration and erasure are very specific and very targeted,” Christina Maranci, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University, told Hyperallergic recently in an interview, describing the destruction as a means to “essentially obliterate Armenian existence from everyone’s memory.” 

“Now, there’s even more at stake,” Maranci explained, pointing to the “countless monuments, churches, cemeteries that serve as markers of Armenian existence for multiple millennia” that have now recently come under Azerbaijan control since the mass Armenian exodus from Artsakh in September. Notably, CHW researchers described in their December report how the Azeri military offensive has “dramatically” increased the scope of their satellite monitoring.

Maranci added that although social media can be a tool for accountability, these platforms have also transformed Azeri attacks on Armenian cultural and religious heritage into “optical forms of terrorism and violence.”

“We’re all waiting for Azeris to post something,” Maranci said. 

“It is extremely painful for Armenians and Armenian-adjacent communities. We need more people to pay attention and the world to pay attention.”

https://hyperallergic.com/830115/azerbaijan-escalates-attacks-on-armenian-heritage-sites/

As one of the leading symposiums on climate change, the United Nations Climate Change Conference has become one of the most important dates on the environmental calendar as countries from around the world meet to measure progress and negotiate multilateral responses to global warming. Also known as COP, the annual summit represents all that is good in the world as attendees tackle one of the biggest existential threats of our time. The conference, however, can also be used for nefarious purposes.

Take for example, Azerbaijan, a country that has been ruled by a petro-dictator, Ilham Aliyev, who has exploited their vast natural resources to buy a seat at the world's table. For years, Azerbaijan has tried to shape the world's perception of them as a country that is open for business, with oil and gas playing a vital role in those efforts. It's one of the reasons why Azerbaijan is celebrating the U.N.'s decision to name them as next year's host for COP29, which is shortsighted, confounding, and dangerous. Put simply, Azerbaijan is trying to cover up its dreadful environmental and human rights record through events like COP.

By awarding Azerbaijan this honor, the U.N. is sending the wrong message to the world and is undermining the core mission and ethos of the annual conference and organization as a whole.

When Azerbaijan hosts COP29 next year, it will do so as a country that relies heavily on oil and gas, which accounts for around 95 percent of its total export revenues. That production will only increase as the European Commission inked a deal with Azerbaijan in 2022 to double imports of natural gas by 2027, to help the bloc reduce its reliance on Russian energy.

And when attendees attend COP29 in Baku, they will also be visiting an area known to be "the ecologically most devasted area in the world," due in large part to oil spills and a country home to one of the most polluted places on Earth.

While there is no denying how Azerbaijan's oil and gas has done irrefutable harm to the planet, it is their weaponization of environmentalism that is more troubling. It promises to create a dangerous precedent for other autocrats looking to greenwash their ulterior motives. It was under the false pretense of environmentalism that Azerbaijan implemented their illegal road blockade of the Lachin corridor that forced more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from their homes in Nagorno-Karabakh, which many leading scholars including Luis Moreno Ocampo, the former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, called a "genocide." The group of Azeris who initiated the blockade claimed that they were raising the alarm about eco-terrorism in the region, but were also from the same country that inflicted harm on the environment during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war with Armenia.

During that conflict, Azerbaijan used chemical weapons to burn down forests where civilians took shelter from Azerbaijan's attacks. Video evidence showed Azeri military forces using white phosphorous munitions containing elements of chemical weapons in the primary forests of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan did not just limit their harm to the environment during the war with Armenia. They also continued to spread their ongoing policy of Armenophobia.

As the host city for COP29, Baku is also home to Azerbaijan's Military Trophies Park, Aliyev's ethnic hatred theme park that glorified and extoled his 2020 victory over Armenia by featuring hundreds of helmets taken from Armenian soldiers killed during the war. And when global heads of state meet to discuss how to address climate change, Armenian political prisoners, who are former leaders of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Armenian humanitarian Ruben Vardanyan, will be sitting near them in Azeri jail cells.

Environmentalism has historically been used as a platform for good and enacting change. Cities like Paris (The Paris Climate Agreement) and Kyoto (Kyoto Protocol) have become symbols for environmental justice and models for climate transparency and openness. But environmentalism can also be used to mask injustices. As this year's host for COP28, the United Arab Emirates used the forum to whitewash its poor human rights and environm

Environmentalism has historically been used as a platform for good and enacting change. Cities like Paris (The Paris Climate Agreement) and Kyoto (Kyoto Protocol) have become symbols for environmental justice and models for climate transparency and openness. But environmentalism can also be used to mask injustices. As this year's host for COP28, the United Arab Emirates used the forum to whitewash its poor human rights and environmental record, which drew widespread criticism from climate advocates like former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

Azerbaijan is the latest country to turn to this playbook. That is why environmentalism and human rights are not mutually exclusive. It allows dictators like Aliyev to use their natural resources to fund their illegal wars and armed aggressions, and then hide behind international forums for perceived legitimacy.

Trusted public institutions like the United Nations have a responsibility to ensure that human rights and the rule of law are conditions for hosting events. They should expect countries that attend these gatherings to be good stewards of their land and people. The bar should be the same for where those meetings are being held.

Stephan Pechdimaldji is a communications strategist who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He's a first-generation Armenian American and grandson to survivors of the Armenian genocide.

https://www.newsweek.com/blood-oilhow-azerbaijan-greenwashes-its-human-rights-record-opinion-1853936 

Maestro Sergey Smbatyan had been arrested in Armenia

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra will be reinstating principal conductor Maestro Sergey Smbatyan to his former position after he was cleared in Armenia of alleged fraud.

Sergey Smbatyan was suspended from his role in the orchestra in July after international media reported that he and his father – a former Armenian ambassador to Israel – were arrested on charges related to real estate fraud in their native Armenia. 

In a statement, Smbatyan’s lawyers last month said that the Armenian prosecutor’s office had decided to stop pursuing the charges against him.

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra said it looks forward to continuing its mission with enhanced vigour as Malta’s foremost musical institution.

LONDON, Dec 19 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan sees no major obstacles to securing a lasting peace treaty with its neighbour Armenia and believes the question of defining their borders can be resolved separately, a senior Azerbaijani official said on Tuesday.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's forces mounted a lightning offensive in September to retake control of Azerbaijan's Karabakh region, whose ethnic Armenian population had broken away in a war in the 1990s. Aliyev said his "iron fist" had restored his country's sovereignty.

"The 35-year-long conflict is now over," Hikmet Hajiyev, a top foreign policy adviser to Aliyev, told reporters in London. "The strategy for Azerbaijan now is to win peace. (This) requires action from both sides.

"A peace treaty is not rocket science," Hajiyev said. "For Azerbaijan there are no longer obstacles on the way to a peace agenda."

The South Caucasus neighbours have fought two wars in the past 30 years over Nagorno-Karabakh, but staged a prisoner exchange this month and issued a joint statement saying they want to normalise relations and reach a peace deal.

The United States, the European Union and Russia have all tried for decades to mediate between the two sides, but Hajiyev stressed the importance of direct bilateral talks which he said would continue next year.

Since its recapture of Karabakh, Azerbaijan has been increasingly hostile to outside involvement in brokering an agreement. Aliyev has accused the United States of jeopardising relations by siding with Armenia, and Hajiyev called the U.S.-led approach to talks lopsided.

Among the outstanding issues between the two neighbours is the lack of agreement over their shared border, with each holding small enclaves surrounded by the other's territory.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said last month that this was a matter for negotiations. Hajiyev said Baku was willing to discuss it but "the border delimitation issue should be kept separate from peace treaty discussions".

Most of Karabakh's 120,000 ethnic Armenians fled to Armenia after Azerbaijan took back control of the territory. Armenia described that as ethnic cleansing; Baku denied that and said they could have stayed on and been integrated into Azerbaijan.

The World Court last month ordered Azerbaijan to let ethnic Armenians return and ensure their safety. Hajiyev said people's right to return should be determined on a case-by-case basis, and they would need to become citizens of Azerbaijan.

"Once Azerbaijani citizenship has been granted, the right of return can be ensured," he said. "We cannot afford a legal limbo status any more."

There should be reciprocal rights, he said, for Azerbaijanis who were forced to flee Armenia or Armenian-controlled territory since 1988.