Published on: 1 May 2024
DOHI Staff
Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) recently reported on the destruction of two Armenian heritage sites by Azerbaijani authorities. Using high-resolution satellite imagery, CHW captured unmistakable evidence of the demolition of St. John the Baptist Church, a 19th-century Armenian-built church, in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Susa area and the razing of Karintak village, located some two miles to the south. Both sites have been under Azerbaijani control since November 2020.
According to Husik Ghulyan, a lead researcher at CHW, a possible goal of Azerbaijan is to completely demolish the settlement of Karintak and build a new village for Azerbaijani internally displaced people. Currently, a large mosque is being constructed on the site of the previous church.
After the first Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, most of Nagorno-Karabakh was governed by ethnic Christian Armenians under the Republic of Artsakh. In 2020, Azerbaijan conducted a military offensive to capture the areas under Armenian control. Despite a temporary suspension of fighting, tensions remained high culminating in the Republic’s takeover by Baku in September 2023. As a result of the last year’s fighting, over 100,000 Armenians fled the area. They are currently living as refugees in Armenia.
