Another destruction of cultural heritage has been recorded in the occupied Artsakh territory. Azerbaijan has completely demolished a Shiite place of worship. High-resolution satellite images confirm that the late 19th-century Aygek Mosque, located in the Kashatagh region, has disappeared from the face of the earth.
The mosque, built in 1890, was one of the rare examples of late Shiite architecture in the region that remained unharmed. According to Caucasus Heritage Watch, it was demolished between January 2021 and April 2024 to make way for the Khudafarin-Kubatlu-Berdzor highway. This came after Armenians had spent years preserving and restoring Islamic cultural sites in the region, including a number of Persian-era mosques, and had also fully restored the Upper Govhar Agha Mosque in Shushi.
Caucasus Heritage Watch, in collaboration with Cornell and Purdue Universities, has provided compelling evidence of the destruction. A satellite image from January 8, 2021 shows the mosque and minaret intact, while an image from April 23, 2024 shows the area completely cleared and given over to the expanding highway construction. The extent of the damage is estimated to be complete and irreversible.
The mosque’s historical authenticity is also supported by documentation. In 2009, researcher Samvel Karapetyan photographed the building, including the 1890 inscription. The materials were later confirmed by Raffi Kortoshyan, co-director of the RIT Foundation.
This destruction of cultural property contradicts international norms for the protection of occupied territories. A November 2024 report by Caucasus Heritage Watch documented that the pace of such incidents sharply increased in the months following Azerbaijan’s military offensive in September 2023 and the forced displacement of more than a hundred thousand Armenians from Artsakh. While Armenian Christian monuments are primarily targeted, the fate of the Aygek Mosque demonstrates that the campaign includes sacred sites of different communities and faiths.
If current trends continue, the region faces the threat of virtually erasing its multi-layered historical and cultural heritage.
