Roads built over Azerbaijani cemeteries in Armenia, says community chair

In Armenia, asphalt roads have been laid over 12 cemeteries belonging to Azerbaijanis, Chairman of the Western Azerbaijan Community and MP Aziz Alakbarli said.

Addressing an international scientific conference titled Return to Western Azerbaijan: As a New Stage of the National Idea, he stated that despite repeated appeals from the Community to Armenia for dialogue, no positive response has been received, Caliber.Az reports via local media.

"During the last deportation, during 1987–1991, more than 200 peaceful compatriots were brutally killed by Armenians, over 400 were injured, and Azerbaijanis expelled from nearly 300 settlements suffered material damage amounting to $2.5 billion in private property and $17.5 billion in public assets. According to international evaluation standards, after 38 years, this damage today amounts to hundreds of billions of US dollars. If we add the destruction of underground and aboveground resources and cultural monuments, the losses multiply. The moral damage, however, cannot be compensated by any amount," the chairman added.

Alakbarli said that recent monitoring conducted by the Western Azerbaijan Community of 201 Azerbaijani cemeteries in Armenia found that twelve of them had asphalt roads constructed over their sites:

"In addition, residential houses have been built on sixteen cemeteries, fifty-six cemeteries have been turned into farmland, six cemeteries have been reused for burials and converted into Armenian cemeteries, sixty-seven cemeteries have been vandalized, four cemeteries have been replaced with industrial and production facilities, five cemeteries have been used for military fortifications, thirty-two cemeteries have been subjected to construction works, and three cemeteries have had water reservoirs built on them."

By Jeyhun Aghazada