CIS Collective Security, Karabakh and Jugha
While RFE/RL reports that Armenia has been prevented from attending a meeting of Defense Ministers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the French President is reported to have urged his Azerbaijani counterpart to accept the latest peace plan mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
French government official said that president of France, quoting, ‘confirmed the principles of joint statement made by three co-chairs of Russia, the US and France may 25 in Yerevan, which states that the time has come for both the parties to come to an agreement on basic principles of the confliict settlement’.
Staying in Europe, Armenia appears to have scored a rare public relations victory over Azerbaijan. Although too late to change anything, the European media has now turned its attention towards the ancient Armenian cemetary of Jugha in the Azeri exclave of Nakhichevan after a EU delegation was refused entry. The paper I used to work for, The Independent, has more.
Most of original 10,000 khachkars, most of which date from the 15th and 16th century, were destroyed by the early 20th century, leaving probably fewer than 3,000 by the late 1970s.
According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos), the Azerbaijan government removed 800 khachkars in 1998. Though the destruction was halted following protests from Unesco, it resumed four years later. By January 2003 “the 1,500-year-old cemetery had completely been flattened,” Icomos says.
Witnesses, quoted in the Armenian press, say the final round of vandalism was unleashed in December last year by Azerbaijani soldiers wielding sledgehammers.
[…]
Some MEPs believe that, boosted by its oil revenues, Azerbaijan is adopting an increasingly assertive stance in the region. Charles Tannock, Conservative foreign affairs spokesman in the European parliament, argued: “This is very similar to the Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban. They have concreted the area over and turned it into a military camp. If they have nothing to hide then we should be allowed to inspect the terrain.”
[…]
Hannes Swoboda, an Austrian socialist MEP and member of the committee barred from examining the site, said he hopes a visit can be arranged in the autumn. He added: “If they do not allow us to go, we have a clear hint that something bad has happened. If something is hidden we want to ask why. It can only be because some of the allegations are true.”
And he warned: “One of the major elements of any country that wants to come close to Europe is that the cultural heritage of neighbours is respected.”
The Independent’s article is here.