Artsakh Declared Independence 35 Years Ago as Armenian Heritage Faces Destruction Under Azerbaijani Occupation

Thirty-five years ago, Artsakh declared itself a republic. Today, the anniversary comes nearly three years after Azerbaijan occupied the region and forced virtually its entire ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.

For decades, Sept. 2 was commemorated in Artsakh with official ceremonies and public events celebrating the establishment of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. In 2026, the anniversary is being observed without an Armenian population living in the region and amid mounting evidence that churches, monuments, cemeteries and other traces of Armenian life have been destroyed, damaged or altered since the 2023 exodus.

The declaration that established the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic was adopted on Sept. 2, 1991, during a joint session of deputies from the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and the Shahumyan district.

Photo Credit: MediaMax

It came as the Soviet Union was collapsing and the conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the region was escalating.

On Dec. 10, 1991, authorities held an independence referendum. According to official results released by the Armenian side, 99.89% of participating voters supported independence. The region’s Azerbaijani population largely did not participate.

The newly elected Supreme Council convened in January 1992 and formally adopted the declaration of independence. Artur Mkrtchyan was elected chairman of the Supreme Council. Artsakh later established its own government institutions and adopted a flag, coat of arms and national anthem.

The republic was never internationally recognized, including by Armenia.

Photo Credit: MediaMax

The declaration came during a conflict that developed into a full-scale war between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. A Russian-brokered ceasefire took effect in May 1994, leaving Armenian forces in control of most of the former Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and surrounding Azerbaijani districts.

For more than two decades, negotiations mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group failed to produce a final political settlement.

That balance changed dramatically on Sept. 27, 2020, when Azerbaijan launched a large-scale military offensive.

The 44-day war ended with a Russia-brokered statement signed by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Nov. 9, 2020.

Azerbaijan occupied the surrounding districts as well as parts of Nagorno-Karabakh, including Shushi and Hadrut. Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the remaining Armenian-populated territory.

Two years later, in December 2022, the Lachin corridor — the only road connecting Artsakh with Armenia — was blocked. The months-long isolation led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel and other basic supplies.

On Sept. 19, 2023, Azerbaijan launched a new military operation against Artsakh. The authorities in Stepanakert agreed to disarm the following day.

Within days, more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled the region for Armenia, effectively emptying Artsakh of the Armenian population that had lived there for generations.

On Sept. 28, 2023, Artsakh President Samvel Shahramanyan signed a decree calling for the dissolution of state institutions by Jan. 1, 2024. Artsakh officials later disputed interpretations that the decree legally dissolved the republic.

The disappearance of Artsakh’s indigenous Armenian population has been followed by growing concern over the fate of its religious and cultural heritage.

Caucasus Heritage Watch, a research initiative led by scholars at Cornell and Purdue universities that uses satellite imagery to monitor cultural sites, reported in June 2024 that it had classified 57 heritage sites as destroyed, damaged or threatened since its monitoring began in 2021.

That monitoring cycle documented six newly destroyed sites and seven facing critical threats. The organization said the number of sites classified as destroyed had increased by 75% between its fall 2023 and spring 2024 monitoring missions.

Its next major report, released in July 2025 after monitoring more than 500 cultural heritage sites, found no new episodes of outright destruction during its fall 2024 and spring 2025 observation periods. Researchers nevertheless documented continuing damage at three Armenian heritage sites — two historic cemeteries and a 19th-century church.

Other monitoring organizations have continued documenting destruction and vandalism that extends beyond those satellite-monitoring periods.

Among the most significant cases recorded in 2026 was the destruction of two Armenian churches in Stepanakert.

Surb Hakob Church, built in 2007, was demolished along with its surrounding grounds, according to Monument Watch. Photographs indicated that khachkars and other monuments within the church grounds were also destroyed.

Weeks later, the Cathedral of the Protection of the Holy Mother of God — Stepanakert’s main Armenian cathedral — was razed.

The cathedral had been consecrated in April 2019 and stood prominently above the center of Stepanakert. Earlier in April 2026, monitoring groups had documented broken windows at the church. By April 21, the structure had been completely demolished, a finding subsequently confirmed through satellite imagery by Caucasus Heritage Watch.

The cathedral’s destruction was particularly significant because it was one of the newest and most recognizable symbols of Armenian religious life in Stepanakert.

Damage has also been documented elsewhere.

In Martuni, Monument Watch reported in February that memorials dedicated to those killed during World War II and the Artsakh wars had been demolished. In April, footage showed the cross atop the dome of the city’s Surb Nerses the Great Church had been broken. The same church had previously suffered broken windows and apparent gunfire damage.

Satellite imagery also showed that memorials and graves connected to World War II and the Artsakh wars in the village of Khnatsakh had been destroyed by July 2025.

In Stepanakert alone, Monument Watch has documented the disappearance or destruction of numerous Armenian monuments, including memorials dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, military figures and prominent Armenian cultural figures. The organization has also reported damage to tombstones at the city’s memorial complex and the demolition of portions of Stepanakert’s historic urban landscape.

The full scale of the destruction remains difficult to determine because independent international researchers do not have unrestricted access to the territory. Satellite imagery, videos posted online and photographs therefore remain among the primary methods used to document changes.

Caucasus Heritage Watch continues to monitor hundreds of sites, while Monument Watch says its broader database contains thousands of historical locations across Artsakh and surrounding areas.

Azerbaijan rejects accusations that it is systematically erasing Armenian heritage. Azerbaijani authorities have characterized some demolished Armenian structures as illegally constructed during the period when the territory was outside Baku’s control and have accused Armenians of damaging Azerbaijani cultural heritage during the previous decades of conflict.

International organizations have nevertheless repeatedly raised concerns about Armenian cultural and religious sites.

The International Court of Justice ordered Azerbaijan in December 2021 to take measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including churches, monuments, cemeteries and artifacts.

Thirty-five years after the declaration of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the circumstances surrounding Sept. 2 are fundamentally different.

There is no Armenian administration operating from Stepanakert, and the population that once marked the anniversary in Artsakh now lives largely in forced displacement.

At the same time, churches, cemeteries, monuments and other physical reminders of generations of Armenian life in the region have become another front in the dispute over Artsakh’s history.

For displaced Artsakh Armenians, Sept. 2 now marks not only the declaration made in 1991, but the loss of their homeland and an increasingly urgent effort to preserve its Armenian cultural and historical record.

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