Old Armenian-Russian Cemetery

Caucasus Heritage Watch has documented the destruction of the Old Armenian-Russian Cemetery on the eastern side of Shusha, Azerbaijan, between May 9 and 14, 2026.

The cemetery contained at least 40 burial markers, including five medieval khachkars , or sacred Armenian cross-stones, dating to the twelfth to thirteenth centuries and 35 tombstones spanning 1810 to 1871. These tombstones preserved evidence of some of the people, institutions, and communities that shaped nineteenth-century Shusha.

High resolution satellite images from Planet’s SkySat constellation first revealed the destruction of the cemetery. Following this initial piece of evidence, CHW conducted further investigation using Planet’s lower resolution Planetscope imagery, allowing us to narrow the window for the destruction to just one week in May. For the full investigation of what has been lost, see the StoryMap in the link.