Cultural Destruction in Khankendi/Stepanakert

Amidst reports of the destruction of Armenian religious sites in the city of Stepanakert/Khankendi, CHW today reported that the Armenian Genocide memorial in Stepanakert/Khankendi has been destroyed (see featured image above). Erected on the 100^th anniversary of the 1915 atrocities, the white marble bell tower once housed a reliquary containing human remains from Der Zor—the Syrian desert town where hundreds of thousands of Armenians perished. Satellite imagery from Airbus and @Planet shows that the monument, as well as an associated memorial complex, were destroyed between July 14, 2025, and April 25, 2026.

CHW’s assessment adds to a concerning wave of heritage destruction in Khankendi/Stepanakert in early 2026. Last month, CHW first confirmed reports of the destruction of the 2019 Holy Mother of God Cathedral, between March 3 and April 2, using Sentinel imagery, which offers low spatial resolution but high temporal resolution.

Subsequent high-resolution imagery surfaced last week, published in RFE/RL. Here we reinforce these findings with CHW’s monitoring imagery.

We also provide CHW’s monitoring imagery for the destruction of the 2007 Saint Jacob church, likewise reported last week.

The concentrated destruction of Armenian religious sites and cultural monuments across Khankendi/Stepanakert suggest a coordinated program of heritage erasure that must stop, as per the @CIJ_ICJ provisional measure of Dec. 2021.