Monumentwatch: Azerbaijan is making very serious efforts to  appropriate Islamic cultural heritage in Armenia

ArmInfo.  Azerbaijan is making very serious efforts to appropriate the Islamic cultural  heritage located in the Republic of Armenia and present it as Turkic-  Azerbaijani. This was reported in a publication by monumentwatch.org,  a website monitoring the cultural heritage of Artsakh, in response to  statements by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the conference  "Cultural Heritage and the Right of Return," held in Baku on December  5. "The first steps in this direction were taken during the Soviet  era by historian Ziya Bunyadov and orientalist Meshadi-khanum  Neymatova.  They primarily focused on Syunik. Neymatova published  inscriptions on Muslim gravestones in the villages of Vorotan,  Vaghatin, and Aghitu in the Sisi region of Syunik Province, which  contained deliberate errors in the decipherment. This was documented  by renowned orientalist A. Khachatryan, who, in his voluminous book  on Arabic inscriptions in Armenia, examined each gravestone in detail  from a substantive, grammatical, and linguistic perspective," the  Monumentwatch publication states.

The source notes that official Azerbaijan's main accusation is that  the Armenian side destroyed "Azerbaijani holy sites, graves, and  monuments" and concealed their existence. It further emphasizes that  in this case, the following document, entitled "List of Historical  and Cultural Monuments Located on the Territory of the Republic of  Armenia, Including Azerbaijani Monuments or Monuments Used by the  Republic of Armenia," is causing "confusion." The list presents  Muslim monuments located in Armenia, along with photographs, brief  information, and a description of their condition by region.

"It should be noted that the list also separately presents Tatar and  Azerbaijani cemeteries. The buildings of rural mosques built on the  territory of former Tatar villages are also not hidden. Since the  Azerbaijani side particularly emphasizes that the Armenian side is  allegedly destroying holy sites, it should be noted that in the  Syunik region, the Bugakar Pir pilgrimage site, located near the  village of Lekhvaz, and the Baba Hajj shrine, located near the  village of Shvanidzor, have remained intact. These sites were sacred  to the Muslim population, including Kurds, Persians, and  Turkic-speaking people, as well as to Azerbaijanis during the Soviet  years, especially since the 19th century. In many villages with a  former Azerbaijani or mixed population, monuments to the Patriotic  War and fountains inscribed with the names of Azerbaijanis who died  in the war have been preserved.

Speaking about the preservation of graves, it should be noted that a  significant number of them are in satisfactory and good condition. Of  course, there are also damaged graves. tombstones, which were not  hidden and were documented in official lists and documents," the  statement continued.

Monumentwatch adds that the Azerbaijani side provides no serious  justification or arguments for its accusations, and those it does  provide are a distortion of historical facts. This is best seen when  examining the "Azerbaijani accusations" regarding Yerevan's Muslim  heritage.

We consider it important to note that Armenian academic thought has  periodically addressed the Islamic cultural heritage located in  Armenia and the connections between Armenian and Islamic cultures  since the 7th century, when Armenia became part of the Arab  Caliphate. Armenian-Islamic cultural ties have been observed in  Seljuk art, Mongolian and post-Mongol art, and the Kara Koyunlu and  Ag Koyunlu tribes," Monumentwatch concluded.