Baku and Moscow exchange accusations after demolition of Aivazovsky monument in Karabakh

The installation of the monument to Ivan Aivazovsky was illegal, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry said. The demolition of the monument is an unfriendly action, according to the special representative of the Russian president, Mikhail Shvydkoi.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, the new round of deterioration in relations between the two countries was the ethnic raids in Russia and the retaliatory detentions of Russians in Azerbaijan. Baku accuses the Russian authorities of extrajudicial reprisals against Azerbaijanis, and footage of the brutal detention of Russians in Baku looks like a demonstrative response to Moscow's actions, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Crisis in Relations between Azerbaijan and Russia".

Installation of a monument to the artist Ivan Aivazovsky in Khankendi (Armenian name - Stepanakert) was illegal, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizade said today. For this reason, he called the dismantling of the sculpture a logical, correct and legal action.

“Despite the existence of a serious disparity in this area between the two countries, no one is eliminating Russian culture in Azerbaijan. There is a Russian theater, schools with Russian as the language of instruction, and publications in Russian in Azerbaijan,” Hajizade was quoted as saying on the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry website.

On July 30, the Nagorno-Karabakh Tourism and Culture Development Agency reported the demolition of a monument to Russian marine artist Ivan Aivazovsky. According to the agency, this happened on the artist’s birthday, July 29.

The publication suggests that the demolition of the monument was carried out by the Azerbaijani authorities as part of the confrontation with the "Armenian cultural presence in Karabakh", since the author of the monument was the sculptor Salavat Shcherbakov, who also created other busts and monuments to prominent Armenians, as he did for Aivazovsky (an Armenian by nationality). The monument was unveiled on December 1, 2021.

"A demonstrative unfriendly action by Azerbaijan"

The Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for International Cultural Cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy clarified that the Azerbaijani side did not notify Moscow of the decision to demolish the monument.

"The actions of the Azerbaijani side are regrettable and deeply unacceptable. These destructive actions are contrary to the spirit of alliance, partnership and good-neighborliness between our countries. And just common sense... I once had the same feelings about the desecration of monuments to outstanding figures of Azerbaijani culture in Karabakh. And I also do not hide this," TASS quotes him as saying.

The demolition of the Aivazovsky monument is an example of vandalism encouraged and pushed at the state level, said Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs Konstantin Zatulin.

"In addition to the fact that this is a barbaric act, it, like many acts of barbarity, is frankly stupid and unintelligent. Aivazovsky is a universally recognized genius of painting, who was valued not only in our Russian Empire, but throughout the world,” Lenta.ru quotes him as saying.

Materials about the deterioration of relations between the two states have been collected by the “Caucasian Knot” on the thematic page “The Collapse of Ties between Baku and Moscow”.