CBC TV Azerbaijan broadcast a video program with a clearly anti-Armenian propagandistic character, one of the theses of which is that the Armenian side had a workshop for the production and artificial aging of Armenian khachkars in the Karvachar region in order to Armenianize the ‘Artsakh and falsifying local history, where the Armenians would have worked by falsifying history. Unfortunately, this absurd thesis, which individuals in Baku have been trying to promote since 2020, including those who consider themselves art critics and historians, has recently begun to spread aggressively at the state level.
The main unfounded and unnecessary premise of this propaganda is that in November 2020, a workshop for “production and aging of cross stones” was discovered in the Karvachar region. According to the Azerbaijani side, the “control” of this workshop showed that Armenian craftsmen carved Armenian inscriptions, crosses and ornaments on stones, and then placed these semi-finished stones in special solutions, for example, vinegar, to age the stones and the positioned sculptures.
What is surprising and ironic is that no real evidence of the existence of a workshop is presented. Contrary to this, images of famous khachkars from different centuries are provided as evidence, such as photos of khachkars near the stairs leading to Sevanavank (17th century), khachkars around Kotavank (16th-17th centuries).
It should also be noted that the majority of khachkars chosen by the Azerbaijani side and presented as “evidence” are located on the territory of Eastern Armenia, and not in Artsakh.
The dangerous prospect is clear. That of presenting the khachkars, crucifixes, inscription stones in the occupied territories of Artsakh as the result of an Armenian counterfeit and eliminating them under the pretext of restoring monuments.
According to Article 9(c) of the 1999 Second Protocol to the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, any transformation of cultural property, as well as any change in the manner in which it is used, which aims to It is prohibited to hide or destroy cultural, historical or scientific evidence.
According to the UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, preserving cultural heritage means ensuring the vitality of heritage. Preserving heritage means ensuring its integrity and integrity, of which the community is also a part, ensuring the standards of authenticity, importance, integrity and exclusivity of heritage. These principles derive from the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, ICOMOS documents and other international organizations.