Political scientist 🔍 heritage & security @UniofOxford. ✍️of Sovereign Heritage Crime (@CambridgeUP) & forthcoming @OUPAcademic Handbook of Heritage & Security
Joined July 2015
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🆕 My first book (a @Cambridge_Uni Element) is now out open-access! Sovereign Heritage Crime: Security, Autocracy, & the Material Past offers a brief intro to a new theoretical framework on state-sponsored cultural erasure:
cambridge.org/core/elements/…
Unwalking the talk: Armenian ruling party deputy lecturing on parliamentarian etiquette VS same person supplying her colleague with a weaponized bottled water
6 years ago today, on Oct 8, 2020, Azerbaijan bombarded Shushi’s Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral twice, destroying a large portion of the roof. After conquest, the Aliyev regime beheaded the conical dome to "restore" the post-1920 pogrom appearance. I took this photo in 2014
In my @NAASR1955 lecture on deconstructing “Western Azerbaijan,” I revealed that the term’s first use had nothing to do with expansionism, let alone Armenia. In 1996—upon visiting Germany—Heydar Aliyev lamented the lack of a capitalist “Western Azerbaijan” youtube.com/live/zRw2KstrSxk…
Very concerning rhetoric in Azerbaijan, with its former foreign minister threatening Armenia with an invasion—after the Armenian government gently challenged Azerbaijan’s mocking of Armenian history in ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh. Is the world order collapsing further?
I miss 2019, when Azerbaijani state denials and conspiracy theories about my investigative work were penned by entrepreneurial underperformers with Western-sounding names and unverifiable academic titles, who have now apparently been replaced by ChatGPT. news.az/news/from-sat-ellite…
Just when you thought that the EU envoy to Azerbaijan couldn’t do anything worse than dancing in ethnically cleansed Nagorno-Karabakh but then she legitimizes Azerbaijan’s conceptual erasure of Armenian cathedrals as “divergent view.” How is it so easy to be so soulless?
She is the envoy for the whole South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia), a pretty high position. Read @Tigartsakh on how her and other diplomats’ jubilance hurts ethnically cleansed refugees civilnet.am/en/news/1014118
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Albanization of Armenian churches is not an accommodation or even appropriation. It’s conceptual erasure preceding the physical one. Just ask Hikmet Hajiyev: in 2017 he published this map acknowledging [destroyed] churches in Nakhichevan, churches he now says never ever existed.
Together with the diplomatic corps, we visited the Ganjasar and Khudavang churches — an integral part of the ancient Albanian Christian heritage.
Ganjasar was established in the 13th century by Hasan-Jalal Dawla, the Caucasian Albanian ruler, and stands as an important testament to the centuries-old Christian heritage of Caucasian Albania.
During the years of occupation, these monuments were subjected to external interventions under the guise of makeshift “restoration,” compromising their architectural authenticity and original character.
Every historical, cultural and religious monument on the territory of Azerbaijan, irrespective of its origin or religious affiliation, forms an integral part of our country’s rich cultural heritage. The Azerbaijani state is committed to their protection, preservation and restoration.
Azerbaijan’s experience in safeguarding its multicultural and multireligious heritage has earned international recognition. We stand ready to share this experience with other countries, including our neighbors.
We also invite media outlets engaged in spreading fake news and misleading narratives on this issue to visit these sites and see the reality on the ground for themselves.
Seeing is believing.
#ChristianChurch #Christianity
I will be speaking on “Western Azerbaijan,” synthetic memory, and perpetual conflict at @NAASR1955 on September 19. Online registration: naasr.org/blogs/events-1/dec…
Azerbaijan has destroyed another historical Armenian—and, in this case, also a multiconfessional—cemetery.
BREAKING: CHW has documented the destruction of Shusha's Old Armenian-Russian Cemetery from May 9-14, 2026.
Full investigation: tinyurl.com/z5bmpaek
The cemetery contained medieval Armenian khachkars and 19th century Armenian and Russian tombstones spanning 1810-1871. 🧵1/5
By “there,” does Putin mean the Agdam complex? newlinesmag.com/reportage/in…
The Armenian judiciary’s passive resistance to the executive’s growing authoritarianism and unjust prosecution of the church is one of the surprising and hopeful news of 2026.
BREAKING: A third judge is now refusing to take on the arbitrary prosecution of the Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin II initiated by Pashinyan. Refers to the Cassation Court to resolve the issue of jurisdiction. news.am/hy/news/1059476
Yerevan’s authoritarianism, as evidenced by ongoing firings of academics with opposition ties, is becoming more brazen by the day
Had the honor of hosting @JohnLechner1 in my Colorado College course on Russia in the Spring to discuss his excellent book, Death Is Our Business, which my students enjoyed reading.
Azatutyun reports on more university firings of government critics youtu.be/5euQZ_TNMsM?is=fy0-…
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In October, at Oxford, and then in December, at UCLA, I unveiled a new theoretical explanation for cultural destruction. Until yesterday the video of the event was embargoed but it is now available online youtube.com/live/hd8bOXp_HLw…
The bravest recognition of the Armenian Genocide came from Yazidi religious leaders in 2015.
The same gov’t that helped Turkey-Azerbaijan ethnically cleanse Armenians in 2023 is now recognizing the Armenian Genocide to punish Turkey for protesting the genocide in Gaza. No, thank you.
I will bring before the Israeli government at its next meeting a proposed resolution for the official recognition by the Government of Israel of the Armenian Genocide.
Recognizing the genocide perpetrated against the Armenian people in the final years of the Ottoman Empire is both a moral and historical duty.
We must also firmly condemn any denial, minimization, or distortion of the historical truth.
The resolution will subsequently be brought before the Knesset for a vote.
Breaking Armenia: The entire department of world literature at the Yerevan State University is reportedly facing closure as apparent punishment for its chair Prof. Anush Sedrakyan’s participation, as a candidate, in last week’s parliamentary election hraparak.am/am/post/957193d6…
