CHW Releases Special Report on Cultural Erasure in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan

CHW has concluded a year-long investigation into the Armenian churches and cemeteries of Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. The results, based on unprecedented site-by-site analysis, reveal a plan of state-sponsored cultural erasure with few parallels. https://bit.ly/3qoXJBd

Our investigation sought to assess a complete inventory of Armenian cultural heritage sites in Nakhchivan. Some sites were impossible to locate or evaluate, but of the 110 monasteries, churches, and cemeteries that could be analyzed 98% were totally eradicated by 2011.

The destruction was striking in its breadth and completeness. Whether structures were in populated regions or remote areas, whether they were small or large, structurally sound or half-ruined by neglect, they were demolished.

During the Cold War, American spy satellites captured an image of St. Khach Monastery in 1973. At the time, Azerbaijan was under Soviet control. More recent satellite imagery indicates the monastery’s full removal in the decade following Azerbaijan’s independence.

Previous reports have revealed key aspects of this policy, and have sought to infer its scope. @hyperallergic‘s 2019 report by @simonforco and Sarah Pickman included eye-witness accounts of the state-guided destruction. https://tinyurl.com/3tszwvr3

CHW’s assessment is the first systematic survey of this policy. For each of the destroyed 108 monasteries, churches, and cemeteries, we have compiled online, interactive @ArcGISStoryMaps that include historical information and proof of destruction. https://bit.ly/3qoXJBd

CHW’s findings can also be accessed as a PDF report, titled, “Silent Erasure.” The full version (29 MB) contains an inventory of every site. It is here: https://adobe.ly/3xeeKlf. An abridged version (2.2MB) can be found here: https://adobe.ly/3DlUkdQ.

In light of the scale of the destruction in Nakhchivan, and the transfer of additional Armenian churches and cemeteries to Azerbaijani administration as a result of the 2020 Karabakh War, we refer our findings to @UNESCO, @UNESCO_Az, @ArmUnesco.