The districts of Shahaponk, Yernjak and Goghtn of Historical Armenia constitute part of the territory of the present-day Autonomous Republic of Nakhichevan.
   In the late mediaeval period, the centre of Yernjak District was Jugha City ('Julfa' in the Azerbaijani language), situated on the left bank of the river Araks, on the borderline between Iran and Nakhichevan.
   In the 7th century Jugha was a famous settlement that developed into a city between the 10th and 13th centuries, becoming a great trade centre in the 15th to 17th centuries.
   In 1605 pursuing the aim of developing crafts and trade in his country, King Shah Abbas deported the Armenian people of Jugha, devastating the city where only the local cemetery remained intact.
   The ruins of Jugha's 18 churches, its magnificent bridge, caravanserais, the closed market, public buildings and dwellings, as well as the cross-stones of the cemetery that has been totally annihilated are the silent but eloquent witnesses of its glorious past.
   The cemetery of Jugha, situated in the west of the ruined city, lies on three hills separated from each other by small ravines.
   According to the perfection of masonry, the tombstones of Jugha are divided into three groups: those tracing back to the 9th to 14th centuries; others erected between the 14th and 16th centuries and the ones dating from the period between the 16th century and 1605. The architectural design and ornamentation of the khachkars of Jugha make them unique specimens of the art of cross-stones.
   We consider it necessary to note that after the deportation of Jugha Armenians, in 1648 the cemetery retained 10,000 cross-stones, while by 1903 to 1904 about 5,000 khachkars and several thousands of gravestones had been preserved there. Between 1971 and 1973, about 4,000 to 4,200 cross-stones could still be found in the ancient necropolis.
   In the Soviet times, the cemetery, that was included within Azerbaijan's borders, was completely neglected by the Monuments Preservation Board, in consequence of which the Turkish inhabitants of the adjacent villages crumbled its cross-stones to equal cubes for the purpose of using them as building material.
   In November 1998 some eye-witnesses from the Persian border attested that the Azeris had begun displacing the tombstones with bulldozers, smoothing away their sites and moving them away by train...
   Those barbarities lasted for about three weeks during which almost 30 per cent of the beautifully-engraved cross-stones of the necropolis was reduced to fragments. The conveyance of the tombstones by railway proves that everything happened on the order of Nakhichevan's authorities.
   The storm of protest addressed to UNESCO and other appropriate organizations stopped that cultural "genocide" which had caused the demolition of about 800 cross-stones. The barbarity, however, continues: according to some trustworthy information, more than 250 Armenian sanctuaries, such as Astapat's Karmir Vank (the Armenian equivalent of 'Red Monastery') and Jugha's Sourb Amenaprkich (Holy Saviour) Church have been deliberately destroyed in Nakhichevan.
   The annihilation of these architectural monuments poses a grave threat to world civilization since they are of universal value, irrespective of their geographical position and national belonging.