'Jugha cemetery'

openDemocracy, 23 April 2006

Subjects:

Photographs of the Armenian medieval cemetery at Jugha, the largest and most precious of its kind, before and after its systematic destruction.

About the author

openDemocracy brings you this special feature.

Jugha cemetery © Argam Aivazian
Jugha cemetery, 1970s © Argam Aivazian

Jugha cemetery © IWPR
Jugha cemetery, April 2006 © IWPR

“It has become one of the most bitterly divisive issues in the Caucasus – but up until now no one has been able to clear up the mystery surrounding the fate of the famous medieval Christian cemetery of Jugha in Azerbaijan.

The cemetery was regarded by Armenians as the biggest and most precious repository of medieval headstones marked with crosses – the Armenians call them “khachkars” – of which more than 2,000 were still there in the late Eighties. Each elaborately carved tombstone was a masterpiece of carving.

Armenians have said that the cemetery has been razed, comparing its destruction to the demolition of two giant Buddha figures by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Azerbaijan has hit back by accusing Armenia of scaremongering, and of destroying Azerbaijani monuments on its own territory.

Now an IWPR contributor has become the first journalist to visit the site of the cemetery on Azerbaijan’s border with Iran - and has confirmed that the graveyard has completely vanished…”

For the full IWPR story see "Azerbaijan: Famous Medieval Cemetery Vanishes", and for additional coverage, see Jeremy Page's report in the Times, "Historic graveyard is victim of war".

This article is published by openDemocracy, and openDemocracy.net under a Creative Commons licence. You may republish it with attribution for non-commercial purposes following the CC guidelines. For other queries about reuse, click here. Some articles on this site are published under different terms. No images on the site or in articles may be re-used without permission unless specifically licensed under Creative Commons.