A video has shown an Azerbaijani Islamist toppling the cross off of a Christian church in Artsakh, prompting outrage and condemnation worldwide. In the video, he can be heard shouting 'Allahu Akbar, 'God is great' in Arabic before bringing the cross down. The video emerged just as a triparty peace agreement was signed between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia.
The peace agreement states that Armenia will withdraw all of its forces from Artsakh and that 5,000 Russian peacekeepers will be put in place to protect the ethnic Armenians that populate the area and their religious and historic monuments.
The peace agreement follows weeks of fighting between Armenian forces and the Azerbaijani army in which over 4,000 people were killed. Artsakh, known officially as Nagorno-Karabakh, is an area that sits inside Azerbaijani territory but is populated mostly by ethnic Armenians who either favour their own independent country or joining the state of Armenia. They claim that they are heavily persecuted by the Azerbaijani state and elements of the Azerbaijani Muslim majority.
The Armenians of Artsakh fear that with the withdrawal of Armenian forces that they will be subject to a genocide. Many have already begun fleeing the area for Armenia and burning down their own homes in order to stop their property being seized by Azerbaijanis.
Azerbaijan has on a number of occasions in the last decade carried out the systematic organised destruction of Armenian holy-sites and historical constructions. The Azerbaijani destruction of Djulfa, a historic site that had been in place for over 400 years, has been condemned by UNESCO and called a cultural geocide by others. The annihilation is believed by many experts to be the greatest act of historical and cultural vandalism of the 21st-century, surpassing the actions of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the actions of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Protests have erupted in Armenia following the signing of the peace-agreement and the Prime Minister has been widely condemned as selling out the people of Artsakh. During these protests, the speaker of the Armenian parliament in Yerevan was attacked and beaten with protestors calling him a 'traitor'. There is now widespread fear that the fleeing Armenians could lead to a new refugee crisis.
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