An Armenian church in Azerbaijan was destroyed in 2022, violating an ICJ ruling. New activity raises questions about how the state is responding. CHW sets out the visual evidence of what happened in a new CHW StoryMap.
In the wake of months under siege and the renewal of armed assaults, the people of Nagorno-Karabakh face a tragic choice: remain on ancestral lands where their churches, cemeteries, and monasteries testify to centuries of communal life or flee in…
CHW Co-Founders Lori Khatchadourian, Ian Lindsay, and Adam T. Smith have been selected as finalists for the 2023 Falling Walls Science Breakthroughs in the category of Social Sciences and Humanities for our work monitoring endangered cultural heritage and documenting destruction…
CHW released its fifth Monitoring Report on the status of cultural heritage in and around Nagorno-Karabakh today, June 22, 2023. It documents 1 destroyed bridge, 2 damaged cemeteries, & 5 newly threatened sites. In this cycle, we identified two concerning…
CHW has documented the destruction of the 1835 Halevor Bridge, which spanned the Ishkhanaget/Quruçay River, 2km southwest of Böyük Tağlar/Mets Tagher. We have been concerned about this bridge since last summer. It was clearly visible in an Oct. 2021 satellite…
CHW is concerned about new military installations near historic sites in Aghdam&Martakert. Between April & July 2021, bunkers were dug into a historic Azerbaijani cemetery, near a mausoleum. They were recently expanded as indicated in an April 2023 image. In…
CHW has made a high-confidence assessment that a centuries-old cemetery in Lachin has been damaged due to construction. Road work encroached into the northeastern and southern areas of the cemetery between October 15, 2022 and April 29, 2023. We geolocated…
On April 28, 2023, Lori Khatchadourian, co-director of CHW, spoke at a UN panel on the “Prevention of Atrocity Crimes in the Digital Era” at the United Nations in New York City. The panel examined the challenges and opportunities presented…
CHW has concluded a year-long investigation into the treatment of Azerbaijani cultural heritage under Armenian control between the Nagorno-Karabakh wars. We used a vast trove of satellite imagery and other sources. Our findings paint a complex picture. Our unprecedented site-by-site…
The Cycladic Preservation Group recently posted a brief interview with CHW co-director Adam T. Smith.
