Story of the Armenian cemetery in Julfa, Nakhijevan.



First khachkars (cross-stones) date to 9-10th century. The lion carrying the cross is the flag of Bagratuni dynasty that rulled Armenia during that time. In 1605 Shah Abas I of Persia destroyed Julfa and moved surviving Armenians to inland Persia.



In 1648 a famous French traveler Alexandre de Rhodes documented

at least 10,000 khachkars, but they were gradually destroeyed and by 1905 only about 5000 remained.



In early 2000’s Azerbaijani governent started to systematically destroy the khachkars, in order to erase the history of Armenian in Nakhijevan. In 2005 an Armenian priest from Iranian side of Araks river videotaped how Azerbaijani soldiers were destroying the Cross stones and throwing the remains in Araks river.



Azerbaijani authorities completely wiped the area of all khachkars and in it’s place built a shooting range.



You can read more about this story in the corresponding wikipedia article. here

20 min documentary about the history and destruction of the khachkars: here



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(Source: armeniaball)