BAKU—US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Matthew Bryza was denied entry into Djulfa Thursday. According to the US Embassy in Baku, Bryza intended to visit the desecrated historic Armenian monuments there.
The ambassador’s request to visit Djulfa was denied. But authorities in Nakhchivan did discuss the Djulfa Khachkars in detail with Ambassador Bryza and pledged to work with him to facilitate a visit to the Djulfa cemetery in coming months, said a press release issued by the embassy.
“As I pledged to do in Washington before arriving as Ambassador, I traveled to Nakhchivan to investigate what happened in Djulfa. As I said at the time the cemetery destruction was reported, the desecration of cultural sites – especially a cemetery – is a tragedy, which we deplore, regardless of where it happens. The United States continues to call on all parties to respect such sites and collaborate on their preservation,” said Ambassador Bryza.
On his first official trip outside Baku in his current position, Ambassador Bryza sought to travel to Djulfa to investigate the cemetery where Armenian Khachkars were reportedly destroyed in 2005, an act that has prompted protests by the European Parliament, international archaeological bodies, and civil society organizations, said the embassy.
“The Caucasus is home to many cultural treasures – representing the various creeds, traditions and values of this beautiful region,” said Bryza. “I have worked actively to protect Armenian churches in Tbilisi, as well as Azerbaijani mosques in Shusha and Aghdam. Preservation of these cultural and religious monuments is of immense human importance, which transcends all political, cultural and religious differences,” he added.
During his two-day visit to Nakhichevan, Bryza met with Vaif Talibov the governor of the region to discuss democracy and human rights. During the discussion, Bryza reportedly expressed interest in visiting Djulfa to gain first-hand knowledge of the fate of the monuments, reported Azadlig radio.
“It’s unfortunate that I have not managed to visit Djulfa and see these ancient burial sites, but I expressed my desire to Talibov and, hopefully, I will be able to go there during my next trip. These monuments are of great interest. We support preservation of all monuments,” said Bryza.
On the eve of the 96th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide it was best to keep your mouth SHUT. Not only it’s offensive but outright insulting.
It has been very unfortunate …. especialy in last 100 years that word GENECIDE,CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS DESTRUCTION AND HISTORY has been considered as Tragedy. I am now fully convinced and understand that TRAGEDY means “NO PUNISHMENT TO THE PERPETRATOR”. It applys only and only for armenian nation. you Bryzn when you finished your investigation on khachkars in Julfa Nakhijivn(Armenian territory occupied by turks) ,have some respect.
which way is my finger pointed
keep in mind yergu mad
To the overseer of the comment blog,
Sir, let me tell you about my family. My grandfather was a survivor from Van; he was an editor of the Armenian News Paper in Yerevan at age 17, during the brief independence. In 1930 he graduated from the top University in Europe; he spoke over 9 languages including early Armenian; he also could read Homer’s Iliad in Homeric Greek. His name is not important all you need to know is that he was Zoravar Njdeh’s right hand man in Sofia Bulgaria, and the Zoravar was my mother’s Godfather. In 1942 my grandfather wrote a book to countermand the newly developed theory by some European scholars that the Armenians were of Semitic origin; the book, “Armenia the Cradle of Civilization”, was published during the height of WWII and successfully argued about our people’s Indo European origins. Would you like me to elaborate about the meeting in Berlin? You’re an educated man and I believe you can take an educated guess of who was in that meeting and what was at stake…In 1944 as the Soviets invaded Bulgaria, my grandfather was arrested and sent to Siberia where he would spend the next 11 years of his life. As a consequence my grandmother, my mom, and my aunt were deported. By the way, both Njdeh and my grandfather were betrayed by the same Armenian Communist. Mr. Overseer, have you ever wondered why at 11:55 PM on April 23 1915 there was nobody to inform our people of what was about to happened?
You now may delete this comment.
Sincerely
Zarmair
Zoravar Njdeh is the greatest military leader of the Armenian modern history. If Andranik would take care of Nakhichevan and Dro of Artsakh, as Njdeh stood for Syunik, today some sh.. like bryza would don flirt about “cultural site”. To bryza it is another item for plotting bloody intrigues.
I think the former US Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Anne Derse . was there before him long ago! …. According to Azerbaijani news media she had announced in Djulfa “ Nakhchivan is a historic Azerbaijani land” –
What to expect? Remember US Secretary of state, H. Clinton, did visit officially the “Shahid Alley of Baku” ( Baku’s myths) .. We all know who is buried there, these are criminals who did burn Armenian women in children in Baku, in Sumgait and else where in “Azerbaijani Republic”
IS that not a surprise? I was there once during my 2 year study in Hayasdan and when one is in our homeland that they took there-it is like a stone hut medieval society that has their outhouses outside their front door-desolate and sad-they had to make our old graves topple and ploughed-what else can they do-nothng constructive and they are the thief with no conscious- sad and occupants of our ancient homelands-as is a good part of turkey and the Azeri areas-not just Nagorno-Karabagh. Well- Mr ambasador needs security there and now more than ever-the Turks have a clause that includes the bullet for anything they disagree with- we know- Hrant Dink knew- Aerial photography and sound listeners tell us everything!!!!!!!!
What the Turks and Aeris are trying to do is destroy anything that is Armenian and then claim Armenians never existed here. This way they can justify having the land. The problem is that they are Turkic people and they aren’t from there, but Mongolia
The U.S State Dept is so out of touch with reality,I expect them to appoint a gorilla or monkey for their next ambassador.