According to the 2021 Report on International Religious Freedom by the State, “in a resolution on “Humanitarian consequences of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan/Nagorno-Karabakh conflict” adopted on September 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe stated that “the long running conflict has had a catastrophic impact on the cultural heritage and property of the region”.

The report notes that the assembly condemned the damage and destruction for which it said Armenia was responsible “and in particular the almost total destruction and looting of Aghdam, Fuzuli, and other areas over the last 30 years, as well as the transfer of cultural heritage.”

It states that according to diplomats, civil society representatives, and journalists who visited the liberated territories, hundreds of sites, including most mosques, shrines, and cemeteries used by the region’s ethnic Azerbaijani communities – approximately 400,000 people – were looted, vandalized, desecrated, and/or destroyed while under Armenian control.

An international photojournalist, Reza Deghati, known professionally as “REZA,” documented the systematic destruction of dozens of Azerbaijani cemeteries in Fuzuli, Aghdam, Zangilan, Kalbajar, and Jabrayil, the report notes.

“Graves were desecrated; in some instances, holes were dug out to rob graves, while other sites showed evidence of the destruction and exhumation by heavy construction equipment.  The methodical vandalism of headstones left few individual graves untouched.  Many graves had the carefully hewn faces of the deceased (carved into gravestones) destroyed by hammers or similar objects.  Additionally, the remains from Azerbaijani graves were exhumed and gold teeth removed, leaving skulls and bones strewn across Azerbaijani cemeteries or in some cases completely removed,” the State Department stresses in its report.

“According to Deghati, Armenian graves remained virtually undisturbed,” it adds.

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