ISIS Is Behaving Like Azerbaijan in Cultural Destruction Frenzy
The ultra-radical terrorist group ISIS is taking a page out of Azerbaijan's book in its senseless destruction of historical and cultural monuments.
The video of ISIS running roughshod through an Iraqi museum in Mosul, defacing and smashing ancient statues is horrifying. Armed with sledgehammers, jackhammers, and other tools, members of the ultra-radical terrorist group destroyed millennia-old singular artifacts from the world’s earliest civilizations. The senseless destruction of cultural and historical monuments is a reminder of when Azerbaijan bulldozed, smashed, and pulverized an entire medieval Armenian cemetery – then turned it into a shooting range – not ten years ago.
Video of ISIS Destroying Museum Artifacts
Starting in 1998, Azerbaijan began to bulldoze thousands of intricately carved Armenian burial stones in Julfa, Nakhijevan, a territory granted to Azerbaijan during the USSR. After the turn of the century, Azerbaijani soldiers used sledgehammers to break up the headstones, some being reduced to mere gravel. The stones were then dumped in the Arax River, erasing any trace of Armenian culture there. The site of the cemetery was turned into a military shooting range shortly thereafter.
Video of Azerbaijanis Destroying Armenian Cemetery
ISIS destroyed artifacts over 2,500 years old; Azerbaijan destroyed and desecrated the final resting place of thousands of people. There is no better or worse, just different shades of sick.
