A report released by the Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) in September highlighted consistent attempts to erase Armenian culture in Nakhchivan between 1997 and 2011. The team from CHW, led by archaeologists from Cornell University and Purdue University in the USA, used aerial images taken by the American government during the Cold War and maps drawn by Soviet surveyors to locate 127 Armenian monasteries, churches, and cemeteries in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan, created by the dissolution of the Soviet Union. They compared these records with recent images to see what had happened to Armenian sites of historic, architectural, and religious significance. Of the 110 buildings identified, 108 had been completely destroyed. According to the authors, the 430-page report demonstrates an attempt at cultural erasure carried out with “surgical precision.” Historically occupied by Armenians, Nakhchivan borders Armenia, Iran, and Turkey.
CHWSatellite images of the site where the New Armenian Cemetery of Nakhchivan used to be locatedCHW
