Azerbaijanis continue the policy of cultural genocide in the occupied territories of Artsakh. Thus, the Azerbaijani military forces are destroying not only Armenian churches, khachkars, monuments dedicated to the First Artsakh War, and Armenian cemeteries, but also Soviet monuments dedicated to the Great Patriotic War.
This time, Azerbaijani vandals encroached on the memory of one of the great Soviet heroes of the Great Patriotic War, Sergei Khudyakov (Armenak Khamperyants). In particular, from satellite images taken in July of 2021, it becomes clear that the Azerbaijanis destroyed the Air Marshal of the USSR, and also smashed and moved his MiG-17, which was located in front of his house-museum in Mets Tagher.
A comparison of photographs taken before and after the 44-day war in 2020 shows that the bust of the Marshal and his MiG-17 were vandalised during the occupation of the village by the Azerbaijani side.
It should be noted that earlier, Artsakh Foreign Affairs Minister David Babayan also confirmed, that, in addition to the statue of S. Khudyakov in the village of Mets Tagher, the statues of other participants and military leaders of the Great Patriotic War, such as Admiral I. Isakov and Colonel-General Sergey Sardarov, were vandalised in the village of Azokh. Sergey Sardarov is considered one of the founders of the Soviet air defence system.
