YEREVAN. – Armenian Foreign Minster Edward Nalbandian commented on banning U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Matthew Bryza from visiting Armenian cemetery in Jugha.

“If they banned the trip they have something to hide,” Nalbandian said on Friday during joint press conference with European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule.

The Armenian Minister recalled that Azerbaijan had been recently hampering visits of foreign officials to Nakhchivan. However, the world witnessed extermination of Armenian historical and cultural monuments in this territory. Nalbandian stressed the Azerbaijani authorities are doing their best to eliminate all traces of Armenian existence in Nakhchivan to prove that these lands always belonged to Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Government blocked U.S. Ambassador’s visit to the ruins of the 1,300 year old Armenian Cemetery in Jugha. Destruction of Armenian khachkars (cross stones) in Jugha started back in 1998. In 2006 the European parliament set up a committee that had to visit Old Jugha but Azrerbaijani authorities banned their access to the territory.