By Simon Maghakyan
www.blogian.hayastan.com
28 February 2006

A recent anti-Armenian demonstration in Iran called for Armenia’s destruction.


Armenians in Canada protest the Azerbaijani destruction of Old Julfa carrying a model of khachkar (stone cross) in front of UNESCO’s building in Ottawa on 25 February 2006. Tens of thousands of khachkars, some as old as the 8th century, were destroyed by the Azerbaijani government from 2000-2005. Aware of the “successful” destruction, Iranian Turks/Azerbaijanis are now calling for Armenia’s destruction. (photo credit: “Life in the Armenian Diaspora” at www.cilicia.com)

As Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi at http://www.regimechangeiran.com/ translates an article from Iran Press News, on 27 February 2006 a group of Iranian Turks (who refer themselves as Azerbaijanis) “gathered for a violent demonstration in front of a local Armenian church [in Tabriz], chanting anti-Armenian and anti-Christian slogans.” The protesters were “commemorating” the deaths of Azerbaijani civilians caused by Armenian army’s takeover of Khojalu in 1992.

The thousand person protesters, according to the Iranian website AFTAB, chanted, “We want the destruction of Armenia.”

Two months before the demonstration the Azerbaijani army had destroyed the last monuments of the ancient Armenian cemetery in Old Julfa (Hin Jugha), close to the Iranian-Azerbaijani border.