Ornaments of the Albanian period were removed from the Agoghlan temple, one of the most magnificent pearls of Albanian Christian architecture in Lachin, and 26 fake "historical" plaques in Armenian were placed on the monument.
The statement came from Elnur Kalbizadeh, head of the Caucasus Policy Department of the Institute of Caucasus Studies of ANAS, Doctor of Philosophy in History, Gadin.Net reports. According to him, in the territory of the complex were buried crosses made in Armenia and given the appearance of antiquity, which have nothing to do with the temple and the area. E. Kalbizadeh said that the process of Armenianization of Agoghlan temple began immediately after the occupation in 1992: "Historical monuments of Lachin region were destroyed by Armenians. The mausoleum of Malik Ajdar, the shrine of Sultan Baba and other shrines in the region have been neglected and monuments have been destroyed. Before the occupation, some stone statues, especially ram and horse figures, were stolen by Armenians and some were destroyed. At the same time, the building of the Lachin State Museum of History and Ethnography, which won the All-Union Museum Review Competition in 1989, and more than 10,000 exhibits were destroyed, and those that could be carried were removed. E.Kalbizadeh added that in general, in the pre-occupation period, there were 54 ancient historical monuments of world and more than 200 local significance in Lachin region:
“Agoghlan Castle of the 9th century, Damir Pir Temple of the 11th century, Malik-Ajdar Tomb of the 12th century, Children's Tower of the 15th century, Snow Dome of the 17th century, single and double bridges of the Middle Ages, water mills. Historical monuments, such as others, with their architectural style confirm that Turkic tribes have inhabited the area since ancient times. The history of settlement in Lachin, the ancient Turkic land, dates back to the 2nd-1st millennium BC. Garanlig kaha, Baygara caves in Mirik village of Lachin region, cave-temple in Khojaz village are the signs of this ancient history. At the same time, after Gobustan and Gamigaya, ancient rock carvings and plot carvings on stone were discovered in Lachin. All these, of course, are common manifestations of the ancient cultural development of proto-Azerbaijanis in our different regions. Recalling that the Zangazur region of Azerbaijan was divided into two parts by the decision of the joint meeting of the Political and Organizational Bureaus of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan in November 1920, the historian added that as a result, 3,105 square versts of 6,742 square versts of Zangazur district were included in Lachin.
Azerbaijan remains part of the USSR, and 3,637 square versts are given to Armenia. The historian noted that Lachin, an ancient Turkic land, is the most strategically important region on the road from Armenia to the mountainous part of Karabakh: "It must be said unequivocally that if Lachin had not been lost in 1992, it would have been impossible for the Armenians who occupied other regions of Karabakh to remain in these territories and for the occupation to last so long."