A video posted on twitter has shown dozens of local Armenians gathering around a monastery in Artsakh before it falls under Azerbaijani control. The monastery in the Karvachar region built between the 9th and 13th centuries has long been a site of Christian Armenian pilgrimage and due to the recent peace agreement will no longer be protected by Armenian forces.
Ermeniler, #Dadivank'ta Azerbaycan'a terkedilecek yüzlerce yıllık kiliseleriyle vedalaşıyor...
— Recep MaraÅŸlı (@RecepMarasl) November 13, 2020
Soru: Bu insanlar neden Azerbaycan yönetimi altında yaşamak istemiyorlar?
Toprakları zorla alabiliyorsunuz ama insanların gönüllerini zorla alamıyorsunuz... İşte bütün mesele. pic.twitter.com/R274XHxJeN
The moving video comes as another video emerged showing an Islamic militant pulling down the cross of a church in Artsakh and shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ ‘God is great’ in Arabic.
The goodbye ceremony comes as tens-of-thousands of Armenians plan to leave the Artsakh region as refugees following the short war between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces that has resulted in over 4,000 deaths. Artsakh, known officially as Nagorno-Karabakh, sits within Azerbaijani territory though it is overwhelming populated by Christian ethnic Armenians. The Armenians claim that they are subject to discrimination and persecution within Azerbaijan at the hands of the state and elements in the Muslim majority.
Following a triparty peace agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia all Armenian forces will now withdraw from the area and 5,000 Russian peacekeepers will enter. They will remain in place for the next 5 years. Many have suggested that the Armenians will now, or perhaps after the Russians leave, be subject to a genocide.
Azerbaijan has long held a policy of attempting to wipe out any Armenian historical structure or holy site within their territory. Recent years have seen the Azerbaijani government intentionally bulldoze the 400 year old holy site of Djulfa in an act that has been called the worst cultural genocide of the 21st century, surpassing in scale even the actions of ISIS in Iraq and Syria and the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Recently captured Islamic militants hired by both Azerbaijan and their ally Turkey have revealed that they were paid bonus money, sometimes as little as $100, for every Armenian they could behead.
Despite the atrocities, other governments and the global media have remained almost entirely silent regarding the conflict.
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