Igdir Complains to Pope Over Armenian Vandalism Against Mosque

Friday, 16 July 2010 17:14

Igdir’s Organization for Fighting Against Baseless Armenian Allegations (ASIMDER) sent Pope Benedict XVI a letter of complaint regarding the mosque in Nagorno-Karabakh which Armenians turned into a cowshed and pigpen.

“As you may know, a historical mosque in Nagorno-Karabakh is being used as a cowshed. While Turkey restores churchs, it is inhuman that historical mosque is being used as a cowshed. Our organization condemns this act. We wrote a letter to Pope Benedict XVI for Vatican to warn Armenians over this issue,” Director of ASIMDER, Goksel Gulbey said.

“Respected Pope, a mosque in Karabakh that is considered as sacred by Turkish-Islamic world is being used as a cowshed. Is this the tolerance of Christian World?” the letter reads.

Today.az reported refering Kavkazcenter website on June 22 that Armenians have turned a mosque in Azerbaijan’s Agdam town into a pigpen and cowshed. The mosque was built by the architect Kerbalai Safi Khan Qarabaghi in 1868-1870.

Agdam was destroyed by Armenians after they captured the town in July 23, 1993. The roof and attic of the mosque have been pilled down. Windows, doors, interior finish, even the marble floor have been destroyed.

Kavkazcenter quotes Andrei Galafyev, who visited the mosque on Sept. 7, 2007, as saying: "Before we visited the mosque, we had to show our documents to military men once again who even insisted on a military escort for us. Assuring people in a military uniform that we can get on ourselves, we left to see the mosque. Fortunately, the military allowed to make pictures, but only the mosque and nothing more. Therefore, I did not shoot any military equipment, barracks and other facilities. We really liked the mosque. It had two beautiful minarets. We climbed one of them through winding staircase and took pictures of the second minaret. The floor in the mosque is entirely dirtied with manure of cattle, which wanders on the ruins of Agdam in daytime.”