Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Baku Says Cemetery Still Intact

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Baku Says Cemetery Still Intact

    BAKU SAYS CEMETERY STILL INTACT

    The Moscow Times, Russia
    May 17 2006

    BAKU, Azerbaijan -- An aide to Azerbaijan's president on Tuesday
    denied a report that a centuries-old ethnic Armenian cemetery had
    been destroyed.

    The report by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting said the
    medieval Djulfa cemetery in the exclave of Nakhichevan, which once
    included thousands of intricately carved crosses, had vanished. The
    report said its journalist was not allowed by accompanying security
    forces to go to the cemetery site, but that the journalist was near
    enough to see the cemetery was gone.

    "This is an absolutely lying publication and statement,"
    said Ali Khasanov, an aide to President Ilham Aliyev. "Not one
    cultural-historical monument, not one Armenian cemetery in the
    autonomous Nakhichevan republic has been destroyed."

    Accusations that Azerbaijan had destroyed the cemetery have raised
    tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which are at odds over
    Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan that has been under control
    of Armenian and local Karabakh forces since a separatist war ended
    with a shaky cease-fire in 1994. The Djulfa cemetery site is generally
    off-limits because it lies in a security zone along the Iranian border.

    Khasanov said the government was ready to work with international
    commissions to clarify the status of cultural and historical sites.(AP)

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Working...
X