Sassounian: Artsakh Armenians can never live under Azeri rule

PanARMENIAN.Net - Publisher of The California Courier Harut Sassounian revealed the details of Scottish researcher Steven Sim’s reports about his troubling experiences in Nakhichevan and attitude that Azerbaijan holds about Armenians.

The report shows why it is impossible for Armenians of Artsakh to live ever again under oppressive Azeri rule.

“Sim stated that he entered Nakhichevan by land from Turkey and travelled to the village of Abrakunis at Yernjak valley. When he asked a 12-year-old about an ancient church there, the boy pointed to an empty piece of land.

Sim next visited Bananiyar, known to Armenians as Aparank, where he reported that “at least until the 1970s there were some ruins of a large medieval church located on high ground in the middle of the village. Now a mosque is built on the former church grounds.

On his 3rd day in Nakhichivan, while travelling by train to Julfa, Sim observed the remains of the Jugha graveyard. He reported seeing “a hillside covered by stone slabs, spread out over three ridges. All of the gravestones had been toppled, without any exceptions.

In Ordubad, Sim was taken to the police station where his bag was searched, as he was interrogated about the purpose of his visit. In Shurut, Sim was confronted by a group of villagers. When he said that he had come to see the old church, they told him that there was never a church in their village. As he left Shurut, the taxi driver told Sim that the villagers had phoned the police in Julfa and that law enforcement officials would probably be waiting for him somewhere along the road,” Sassounian said.

“If a Scottish visitor is treated so poorly, imagine how much worse Azeris treated their Armenian subjects in Artsakh until its liberation,” Sim stressed.

Sim’s revealing report was released in 2006, yet has not been adequately publicized in the international media.