Azerbaijan's demolition of Armenian cultural and historical monuments has received no appropriate response of the international community, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at an exhibition in Vatican.
"One thing is clear - the xenophobia, racism, genocide, demolition of cultural heritage, which have not been harshly assessed or condemned in due time, lead to occurrence of new similar crimes. There are numerous examples. At the exhibition we have just seen the facts confirming the demolition of the Armenian medieval cemetery in Jugha. The cemetery had thousands of unique khachkars (cross-stones) of IX-XVI centuries. In late XX century the Azeri vandals destroyed that rare cultural site within some 20 years. Meanwhile, this fact has not been properly assessed by the world community, but numerous people have realized that they can easily destroy the centuries-old cultural heritage of an entire nation with pickaxes and remain unpunished. No wonder that similar cases now occur in Syria, Iraq and other places", said Sargsyan.
In the meantime, he pointed out opposite examples as well. "For instance, Lebanon gives shelter and protects millions of Christians", he said. Sargsyan also stressed the need to stop the dictator, who enslaves his own people and is out for blood of his neighbors. Otherwise, it will be impossible to prevent re-occurrence of the crimes of the past, Sargsyan added.