List of cultural monuments damaged in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict - an ethnic and territorial conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh spanning over a century, caused damage to a number of cultural monuments in the region. An alphabetical list follows.

List

	Site	Image	Involved party claims	Third party views
	Armenian cemetery in Julfa in Nakchivan		Thousands of funerary monuments of medieval Christian Armenian art - khachkars (decorated cross-stones) were demolished and leveled by Azerbaijan, the American Association for the Advancement of Science concluded in 2010 based on comparison of satellite photos of the cemetery taken in 2003 and 2009. Across the Araks river The Armenian Bishop of Tabriz, Nshan Topouzian, and other Iranian Armenians videoreorded the Azerbaijani troops finished the destruction of the remaining khachkars using sledgehammers and axes. The destruction of the cemetery has been described by Armenian sources as an act of cultural genocide.	In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting who visited the area reported that no visible traces of the cemetery remained. In the same year, photographs taken from Iran showed that the cemetery site had been turned into a military shooting range. In 2006, Azerbaijan barred European Parliament members from investigating the claims of destruction, blaming them in "biased and hysterical approach" to the issue and stating that it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-occupied territory as well. Uğur Ümit Üngör, a Dutch genocide scholar, called the destruction of the Julfa cemetery an act of cultural genocide. Sarah Pickman, writing in Archaeology, noted that the loss of Nagorno-Karabakh to the Armenians has "played a part in this attempt to eradicate the historical Armenian presence in Nakhchivan" by Azerbaijan.
	Agdam Mosque in Agdam			Associated Press reported that the Agdam Mosque was the only structurally intact building in the city, but that under Armenian control it was used as a stable for cattle and swine. The mosque's interior was neglected and damaged.
	Azerbaijani religious monuments in Shusha including Ashaghi Govhar Agha Mosque			Either destroyed or left in disrepair. A British journalist witnessed Armenian soldiers using minarets of a mosque in Shusha as shooting targets.
	Busts of three Azerbaijani musicians and poets from Shusha			Armenians also dismantled and sold off historic dark bronze busts of three Azerbaijani musicians and poets (poet and philantropist Khurshidbanu Natavan, composer, conductor, publicist and playwright Uzeyir Hajibeyov, opera tenor and folk music performer Bulbul) from Shusha.
	Church of the Holy Virgin in Baku			The Armenian Apostolic church in the Old City of Baku, built in the 18th century on the southern side of the Maiden Tower near an Armenian caravansary was demolished in 1992. The church was standing until the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as can be seen on several photographs. Thomas de Waal mentions that according to the diplomat who worked in Baku in 1992, at the height of the Karabakh conflict, the church was destroyed, and now instead there is an empty space at its former site near the Maiden Tower.
	Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shusha		Damaged as result of Azerbaijani shelling in 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.	On 8 October 2020, the cathedral was struck twice by Azerbaijan, which resulted in the collapse of part of the roof. Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that the two attacks "suggest that the church, a civilian object with cultural significance, was an intentional target despite the absence of evidence that it was used for military purposes." HRW collected remnants of the weapon used against the church, which "corroborate the use of guided munitions."
	Giyasly village Mosque in Agdam		Kirill Krivosheyev, a Russian journalist for the post-Soviet space from the Kommersant newspaper, published on his Telegram channel photographs of a destroyed mosque and a cemetery in the Aghdam region.	The photojournalist Reza Deghati, who visited Aghdam shortly after it, noted that before leaving the region, the Armenians set the mosque in Giyasly on fire.The Kommersant correspondent Kirill Krivosheev, who also visited the village, noted that there were piles of hay in the village mosque, and a corral was made nearby. According to National Geographic, the historic mosque in Giyasli was destroyed, its remnants used as a barn.
	Grave and commemorative complex of Khurshidbanu Natavan in Agdam			Vandalized and partly destroyed.
	Kanach Zham (Saint John the Baptist Church) in Shusha		Azerbaijani government and the Baku Eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church maintain that the church, which suffered damage during the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war, is still standing and undergoing "renovation".	There have been reports of its destruction or demolition after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war based on satellite images.
	Tigranakert archeological site in Agdam		In November 2021, Armenian sources reported that Azerbaijanis have turned a section of Tigranakert into a barbecue restaurant.	The ancient city founded in the first century B.C. by the Armenian king Tigranes the Great, currenlty an archeological excavation site and a museum, was shelled by Azerbaijan in 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War.
	Small mosque in Armenia			According to journalist Thomas de Waal, A few residents of Vardanants Street recall a small mosque being demolished in 1990. The reason for its destruction was the fact that it was not considered Persian but Azerbaijani.
	Zoravor Surp Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God") church in Jabrayil		When BBC journalist asked the police escort what happened to the church, the latter initially said that the church was "destroyed during the war" but then when confronted with the fact that videos showed the church was still intact when the area had just come under Azerbaijani control, he said that "they [Armenians] destroyed it themselves".When shown the images to Head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of the Presidential Administration Hikmet Hajiyev saying "the church has been destroyed", Hajiyev replied "because it's a proper geolocation I don't know, I need to check".	In March 2021, the BBC journalist Jonah Fisher visited the site of the church using geolocation and found no trace of it remained.

References

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