As many as 27,000 Armenian culture monuments were demolished in Nakhijevan in 1998-2006, Argam Ayvazyan, Armenian historian and expert in cultural studies, has told ArmInfo.
"It is noteworthy that before 1998 the process of demolition of Armenian churches, chapels, khachkars and other cultural and historical monuments was going on relatively slowly. Nearly 30 monuments were destroyed in the Nakhijevan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic during the Soviet years," he says.
Ayvazyan points out that during the years of the Karabakh war, not a single monument of culture was demolished in Nakhijevan up to the year 1998. The process intensified starting from 1998. "The latest act of that barbaric policy was the demolition of the khachkars (cross-stones) in the Old Jugha cemetery in 2005- 2006", he says.
An honored man of culture of Armenia, Argam A. Ayvazyan is author of 200 works. He has studied the historical monuments of Nakhijevan for 45 years.