Azerbaijan has begun demolishing a building in Stepanakert that served as Nagorno-Karabakh's parliament for nearly 20 years.

A video released by pro-government Azerbaijani media on Monday showed an excavator working at the site of the largely ruined building. The building was designed to resemble a traditional Armenian church. The marble structure, built in the early 2000s, was located in the central square of the capital of Karabakh.

In November, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held a military parade less than two months after the Azerbaijani military offensive that forced the entire population of Karabakh to flee to Armenia and restored Baku's control over the region. Additionally, during last month's presidential election that gave him another term in office, Aliyev voted in Stepanakert.

Aram Harutiunyan, a Karabakh lawmaker exiled in Armenia, stated that the demolition illustrates Baku's attempts to eradicate any evidence of the Armenian presence in Karabakh. Harutiunyan suggested that the reason Azerbaijan targeted the building was due to it being a gathering place for those who won the first war.

Yerevan has not yet commented officially on the news.

Before the demolitions, Armenian and Karabakh officials blamed the Azeri authorities for the systematic desecration or destruction of Armenian monuments in Karabakh. They claim that at least two Karabakh Armenian churches have been torn down since the Russian-brokered ceasefire that ended the six-week war in November 2020.

Several reports showed the destruction of Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh since 2020. The two sides have continuously demolished the cultural heritage of the other side while either has had the territory under their control. 

Azerbaijan took full military control over Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, triggering the depopulation of the previously Armenian-inhabited region. The Azerbaijani government plans to organise the return of Azerbaijani refugees to Nagorno-Karabakh. Some of the internally displaced people have already returned to the areas recaptured by Azerbaijan in 2020.

Azerbaijan is also conducting large-scale construction in those regions. 

While neither the Armenian nor the Azerbaijani authorities speak about the possibilities of the return of Karabakh Armenians to their homes, Moscow and the European Union have continuously mentioned the importance of providing the refugees with the necessary conditions to return, if they want to. 

Russian officials have repeatedly claimed that they were discussing the conditions of the return of Karabakh Armenians with Azerbaijan. The Russian peacekeeping forces deployed to Nagorno-Karabakh stayed in the region despite the displacement of the Armenian population. While Moscow claims that it will still discuss the possibilities of the extension of the peacekeepers' term in the region, Baku claimed that the presence of the peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh will end in 2025 as per the November 9 agreement.