SASSOUNIAN: ARTSAKH ARMENIANS CAN NEVER LIVE UNDER AZERI RULE

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 21, 2011 – 13:08 AMT

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.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress