News - Caucasus Heritage Watch: Azerbaijan building road through historical burial ground in Karabakh’s Shushi (PHOTOS)

Between October 5 and November 3, Azerbaijani bulldozers carved a road through an historic burial ground, known as the Yerevan Gate cemetery, in Nagorno-Karabakh’s Shushi city, the Caucasus Heritage Watch alerts. Nestled amidst the trees are at least 78 Armenian-inscribed tombstones dating between 1802 and 1913. It is unclear how many tombstones were damaged, but research shows that burials covered the area. The tombstones of women and men, young and old, tell stories of kinship, occupation, faith, status, and more. And they ask that the deceased may rest in peace. This is the fifth Armenian cemetery impacted since November 2020, after the destruction of Mets Tagher and Sghnakh villages, and damage to cemeteries in N. Shushi and near Vazgenashen village. Development cloaks a slow Azerbaijani project to remove the ancestors of Shushi’s Armenian inhabitants.