Armenian Assembly of America strongly condemns the shelling of a  centuries- old church in Nagorno-Karabakh 

ArmInfo.Today, the Armenian Assembly of America strongly condemned the shelling of a centuries-old church in Nagorno-Karabakh and urged the international  community to take action to end the carnage and save lives.  "The  continuing Azerbaijani and Turkish destruction of churches is further  proof that, in addition to sanctioning Turkey, the United States  needs to apply the plain language of Section 907 of the Freedom  Support Act to stop funding this behavior with taxpayer dollars and  sanction Turkey," said Armenian Assembly Board Co-Chairs Anthony  Barsamian and Van Krikorian. "This attack belies their claims of  religious tolerance."   If there are any lingering questions about what exactly the conflict  in Nagorno-Karabakh is about, they were dispelled this morning when  Azerbaijan deliberately struck the Holy Savior Armenian Cathedral of  Shushi. The church, which is clearly visible upon a hilltop, cannot  possibly have been mistaken for a military target.  Azerbaijan is  striving in every fashion to turn the struggle of the Armenians of  Nagorno-Karabakh into a religious conflict. Armenians know the true  meaning of jihad. They survived its atrocities in the genocide of  1915 at the cost of 1.5 million lives. Nor can the strike upon the  cathedral be dismissed as an accident. When the medieval Armenian  cemetery of Julfa (located in the Azerbaijani exclave of  Nakhichevan), famed for its thousands of artfully carved  cross-stones, was plowed under by Azerbaijani authorities in 2005,  there was no shooting or shelling occurring anywhere. It was a  deliberate act of vandalism against religious objects at a remote and  isolated location of no strategic value.  The shelling of the  cathedral of Shushi should also be viewed in the pattern of Turkey's  leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to convert Byzantine Greek cathedrals  that had for decades been open for decades to the public as museums  into mosques for Islamic worship. The misuse and damage of Christian  edifices remains a continuing problem across the entire region.  "We  call upon the international community, religious leaders and all  people of good will to condemn this egregious attack and to help stop  the violence," stated Assembly Executive Bryan Ardouny. "Now is the  time for good people to act and help save lives. Contact your elected  officials and make your concerns known," Ardouny added.

Further, there is no longer any dispute that, in recent weeks Turkey,  actively transported jihadists from Syria and Libya to Azerbaijan, in  order to give the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh a religious  overtone. Nor is there any doubt about the atrocious conduct of the  jihadists that Turkey sponsors whether in northern Syria, Libya, or  or other troubled spots across the Middle East and North Africa.  The  Holy Savior Armenian Cathedral of Shushi has been damaged more than  once in the course of the past century. Again and again, Azerbaijanis  have targeted this place of worship. The latest shelling follows the  incessant strikes of civilian-populated areas, including schools and  kindergartens, by Azerbaijani forces seeking to drive out the local  Armenian population from their homeland.  After 12 days of brutal  warfare, Azerbaijan, which has unleashed strike drones, ballistic  missiles, and cluster bombs upon towns and cities across  Nagorno-Karabakh, is only escalating the conflict and raising the  stakes. With each passing day, Azerbaijan, with the full support and  encouragement of Turkey - one of its primary suppliers of military  hardware, including killer drones - is elevating the risks and  expanding the zone and nature of the conflict. There can no longer be  any doubt about Azerbaijan and Turkey's true intentions: to write  another chapter in the expulsion and deportation of the Armenian  people from another portion of its historic homeland where they  formed the first Christian nation on earth.