Caucasus Heritage Watch

The "Red Cross" Church of Bina/Tumi Possible illicit excavations in Khojavend, Azerbaijan may have damaged an Armenian church

DAMAGE ALERT: Possible illicit excavations in Khojavend, Azerbaijan may have damaged an 11th century Armenian church.

CHW used multiple satellite constellations to analyze the situation.

Read our latest StoryMap:
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The Holy Savior Monastery is not on Azerbaijan’s monument inventory. CHW calls on Azerbaijani authorities to add this historic site to the list as a 17th century Armenian monastery and accord it all due protections to ensure its preservation. 4/4

Between the Wars A Satellite Investigation of the Treatment of Azerbaijani Cultural Heritage in the Unrecognized Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, 1994-2020

This kind of scrap metal extraction recalls the looting of metal roofs from mosques and other architecture following the 1st Nagorno-Karabakh War, which CHW documented in our 2023 investigation, Between the Wars. 3/4: tinyurl.com/2trmkvf5

Known in Armenian as Sb. Amenaprkich Vank (Napat), the complex includes a chapel and auxiliary building with an inscription and cross stones. Sources note a restoration in 1888. These photos were taken in 1989 and 2009, after the latest restoration. More here 2/4: tinyurl.com/3hwwy83s

The 17th century Holy Savior Monastery located near Təpəkənd/Tonashen in Azerbaijan’s Aghdara District has been damaged. Between October 2024 and August 2025 most of the metal roofing that had been added as part of a 2009 restoration (in then Nagorno-Karabakh) was removed. 1/4

Known in Armenian as Sb. Amenaprkich Vank (Napat), the complex has a chapel and auxiliary building with an inscription and cross stones. Sources note a restoration in 1888. These photos were taken in 1989 and 2009, after the latest restoration. More here 2/4: tinyurl.com/3hwwy83s

Known in Armenian as Sb. Amenaprkich (Napat), the complex has a chapel and auxiliary building with an inscription and cross stones. Sources note a restoration in 1888. These photos were taken in 1989 and 2009, after the latest restoration. More here 2/4: tinyurl.com/3hwwy83s

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Meet the CHW leads: archaeologists Smith, Lindsay, & Khatchadourian and political geographer Ghulyan. Since 2020 we've drawn on decades of regional expertise to respond to war’s impact on cultural heritage.

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Caucasus Heritage Watch Help Cornell University raise $10,000 for the project: Caucasus Heritage Watch. Your gift will make a difference!

Our crowdfunding campaign is live! Since 2021, CHW has provided independent satellite-based evidence on cultural heritage affected by the Armenia–Azerbaijan conflict. Please contribute today to sustain this vital work.

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CHW will continue the costly work of cultural heritage monitoring using commercial satellite imagery. To contribute to this work, visit our website and click “Donate”. As always, we refer our findings to @unesco.org 4/4 caucasusheritage.cornell.edu

Current conditions for preserving Armenian cultural heritage in Karabakh are not favorable. As development and resettlement accelerate while international legal oversight appears poised to diminish, CHW’s monitoring work takes on heightened importance. Read more in the report. 3/4

New threats concentrate in Lachin region, where development has been intense. Threats also occur elsewhere where roadwork and development are underway, e.g., in Vangli/Vank and Shusha/Shushi. See CHW’s map of all impacts to cultural heritage since spring 2021. 2/4

Monitoring Report #8 on 500+ cultural heritage sites in former Nagorno-Karabakh out today. See findings from satellite monitoring missions in fall 2024 and spring 2025. Key takeaways: no new destruction; damage to 2 cemeteries and 1 church; spike in # of threatened sites. 1/4 tinyurl.com/hm6daw9x

We're looking forward to joining @bellingcat.com for this conversation on Thursday at 10am EST.

As world leaders gather in Baku for the COP29 summit to advance solutions for the future, they should also call on Azerbaijan to protect the past – particularly the cultural heritage of Karabakh Armenians exiled from their homes. 6/6

Also, the Ministry of Culture should add this 19th c. Armenian church to Azerbaijan’s monument list and plan for its restoration, in collaboration with Armenian architects. As the example of Cyprus has shown, bicommunal cultural heritage work can build bridges. 5/6

In a Dec 2021 provisional ruling, the International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan to “prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage.” Baku must investigate and hold accountable any parties who caused the damage or failed to prevent it. 4/6

The church remained in damaged but stable condition for decades until the recent collapse documented by CHW. The engraved cross, pictured below, is to the left of the large hole where the door once stood. More about this church here: tinyurl.com/pfk4bcmd. 3/6

Photographs taken in the mid-1990s indicate that the entryway in the southern wall was already damaged by that time. Also, the stone facing around the windows was no longer present. 2/6

Satellite imagery shows that between Oct. 5, 2023, and April 30, 2024, the 19th century Tandzatap church in Garababa, Zangilan sustained major damage. Most of the roof has collapsed, as has the southern wall which featured an embedded stone engraved with a cross. 1/6

Preparations for COP29 may have a grave impact on Karabakh’s Armenian cultural heritage. Massive infrastructure and redevelopment projects are threatening, damaging, or destroying cultural sites in the path of omnipresent earth movers. Learn more in the report.

In this cycle, the impacts cluster in Shusha/Shushi district as well as in Kalbajar (villages of Zar/Tsar, Chirag/Chragh, and Gozlu/Vaghuhas). Also impacted: Khojaly/Askeran (Garabulag/Aknaghbyur village) and Khojavend/Martuni (Chartar and Hunarli/Tsakuri villages). 3/4

Monitoring Report #7 on cultural heritage in former Nagorno-Karabakh out today. Our latest monitoring cycle has revealed the greatest number of impacted Armenian cultural sites since we began monitoring in 2021. Newly destroyed=6, newly threatened=7.1/4

tinyurl.com/4bbywb9j

Azerbaijan has destroyed the remains of two schools and with them traces of a medieval Armenian past. Their ruination encapsulates the cycles of erasure that have wrecked cultural landscapes in the NK conflict. Our latest StoryMap 'Wreckage upon Wreckage'.

storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/2e1ec3…

This is the third cemetery destroyed since the 2020 ceasefire. Four others have been damaged. Bulldozing Armenian burials is an emerging feature of post-war development in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh, disturbing ancestors and erasing inconvenient testimony to belonging and coexistence.

DESTRUCTION ALERT: Satellite imagery dated April 4 shows that the destruction of the Ghazanchetsots cemetery in Shusha is complete. This marks the first destruction of a cemetery since the @CIJ_ICJ ordered Azerbaijan to prevent and punish attacks on Armenian cultural heritage.1/3

Correction: @CIJ_ICJ

At the entrance to the belfy, building inscriptions in Armenian read: “St. Hovhannes Mkrtich Church was built by Shusha townsman baron Hovhannes and Baba Stepanyan Hovnanents in memory of their deceased brother Mkrtich in the year of 1847.” 3/3