By Artur Hakobyan

Azerbaijani shepherds are destroying the wall painting in David-Gareji, Bertubani, using daggers, the historian Alexander Elerdashvili told the Kakheti information center.

Bertubani is located at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and populated with Azerbaijanis. The alarming fact is that the Azerbaijani frontier guards have joined the shepherds in destroying the wall painting.

“What is going on there is nothing but vandalism,” said the historian, who resides in Sagarejo.

This is not at all the first act of vandalism committed by Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani authorities connive at regularly committed acts of vandalism, laying the blame on the Armenian side or “unknown forces.”

Early this January Azeri mass media reported the destruction of gravestones in the cemetery in the village of Cyzylgajyly, Ghazakh region, Azerbaijan. The Armenian side was blamed through the cemetery is under Azeri troops’ control.

What is more, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense, Prosecutor General’s Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued statements on relevant investigations. “If Armenians prove guilty, Azerbaijan will apply to international organizations,” the Azeris stated.

The opposite can hardly be proved now as the Azerbaijani citizens must have been bereft of reason due to the state propaganda system. The acts of vandalism committed in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, prove disrespect is shown for only national minorities’ cemeteries, but also Azerbaijani ones.

On January 27, several dozens of gravestones in the Surakhn cemetery in Baku were reported to have been destroyed.

Being unable to lay the blame Armenians, the Prosecutor’s Office issued a statement on an act of hooliganism.

From the historical point of view, such instances are not surprising at all. The destruction of Armenian khachkars (cross-stones) in Julfa is enough for one to learn the real worth of some Azerbaijanis. Late in 2000, Azerbaijani servicemen destroyed 3,000 Armenian khachkars in Julfa, which had been declared cultural heritage by UNESCO. In December 2005, Azerbaijani servicemen destroyed the last fragments and threw them into the Araks River.

Since nothing happens in Azerbaijani without orders issued by the top officials, it is clear who are the real vandals.

T.P.