Monitoring Alerts > On the Destruction of the Memorial to the Great Patriotic War and the Artsakh Wars in Khnatsakh Village

On the Destruction of the Memorial to the Great Patriotic War and the Artsakh Wars in Khnatsakh Village

In 2025, the Azerbaijani side resettled Khnatsakh village and circulated photographs documenting the “return” of Azerbaijanis to the village. Satellite images (Fig. 1) demonstrate that, as early as July 2025, the Azerbaijani side had destroyed the memorials erected in memory of those killed in the Great Patriotic War and the Artsakh wars, as well as the graves of the village’s defenders from the years of the First Artsakh War, which were located within the memorial precinct (Figs. 2, 3). Not only was the memorial destroyed, but substantial earthmoving operations were also carried out, as is clearly visible when the site is compared with satellite images from 2023 (Fig. 4). In place of the destroyed memorial, a sign bearing the village’s fabricated Azerbaijani name—Xanyurdu kəndi—was erected (Fig. 5).

Our response

The destruction of memorials dedicated to the Great Patriotic War and the Artsakh Liberation Struggle constitutes a violation of Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, as well as of the Second Protocol, adopted in 1999. It also violates the binding Order of the International Court of Justice of 7 December 2021, by which the Court required Azerbaijan to take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including, but not limited to, churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries, and artefacts: https://www.icj-cij.org/public/files/case-related/180/180-20211207-PRE-01-00-EN.pdf

The destruction of the memorial also violates Rules 38, 39, 40, and 41 of international humanitarian law. It is especially important to emphasize that the International Court of Justice has confirmed that the provisions concerning the protection of cultural property have the status of customary international law, meaning they operate as universal and non-derogable norms, binding on all states.

It is also important to note that the UNESCO Declaration concerning the Intentional Destruction of Cultural Heritage, adopted in 2003 by the 33rd session of the General Conference in Paris, prohibits the intentional destruction of heritage.

Fig. 1. The destroyed memorial as of July 2025, and the earthmoving and construction works carried out around it.

Fig. 2. General view of the memorial. Photo: Khnatsakh community Facebook page.

Fig. 3. General view of the memorial. Photo: Khnatsakh community Facebook page.

Fig. 4. Satellite images of the memorial as of 2023.

Fig. 5. Azerbaijani sign erected on the site of the memorial. Photo by APA GROUP.