A centuries-old Armenian-Russian cemetery in Shushi has been completely cleared to make way for a wastewater and stormwater treatment facility, according to monitoring group Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW), which documented the work through satellite imagery. The destruction of the burial ground, on the eastern side of the city, took place between 9 and 14 May 2026, and was reported in a CHW analysis published on 5 September and covered on 8 September by The Armenian Report and on 6 September by NEWS.am. The project is part of a broader redevelopment plan for Shushi.
Key takeaways
- The site contained at least 40 historic monuments, including five 12th- and 13th-century Armenian khachkars and 35 gravestones dating from 1810 to 1871, The Armenian Report reports.
- CHW used satellite imagery to confirm that the cemetery was levelled between 9 and 14 May 2026 to clear ground for a sewage and rainwater treatment plant, NEWS.am reports.
- Inscriptions on the gravestones appeared in Armenian, Russian and Latin, and the burials included goldsmiths, military personnel, doctors and civil servants of the Russian Empire, The Armenian Report reports.
- Among the named burials were Vladimir Mikhailov, commander of the 42nd Rifle Regiment who took part in the 1826 defence of Shushi, and Moscow-born Sofia Regina Reander, whose tombstone carried a Latin inscription, NEWS.am reports.
- CHW has called on Azerbaijani authorities to halt the destruction of heritage sites and to preserve the layered history of Shushi, The Armenian Report reports.
What happened at the Shushi site
CHW, an independent research initiative that uses satellite imagery to monitor cultural heritage across the South Caucasus, recorded the complete removal of the Old Armenian-Russian Cemetery on the eastern side of Shushi between 9 and 14 May 2026, The Armenian Report reports. The clearance is being carried out to make room for a wastewater and stormwater treatment plant, a project that sits inside a wider redevelopment plan for the city, The Armenian Report reports.
Before the levelling, the cemetery held at least 40 historic monuments, including five Armenian khachkars (carved cross-stones) from the 12th and 13th centuries and 35 gravestones dated 1810 to 1871, The Armenian Report reports. The same inventory is confirmed by NEWS.am, which lists 35 tombstones from 1810 to 1871 and five medieval cross-stones on the same plot.
CHW framed the site as a rare physical record of Shushi's layered past, with gravestones in Armenian, Russian and Latin and burials that included members of local Armenian families, prominent goldsmiths, military personnel, doctors, civil servants and administrators of the Russian Empire, The Armenian Report reports. NEWS.am names two specific burials: Vladimir Mikhailov, commander of the 42nd Rifle Regiment who took part in the 1826 defence of Shushi, and Moscow-born Sofia Regina Reander, whose tombstone carried a Latin inscription.
CHW said: "The old Armenian-Russian cemetery of Shushi survived wars, regime changes, and nearly two centuries of history. It did not survive the city's 21st-century redevelopment," according to The Armenian Report. The same group added: "As the new infrastructure rises on the site, the cemetery that once connected medieval Armenian heritage, Russian imperial administration, and the lives of Shushi's residents will now be associated with wastewater and stormwater treatment," The Armenian Report reports.
Specification read
The Shushi project is a greenfield combined wastewater and stormwater treatment facility, but the two source reports do not publish a design flow, a population equivalent, a treatment train, a discharge standard, a contract value or a procurement timetable, so any sizing here is a class range, not a reported figure. For a city the size of Shushi, combined sewer and stormwater plants in this bracket typically fall in the low thousands of cubic metres per day, equivalent to roughly 1 to 5 MLD, and are built around a standard train: screening and grit removal, primary clarification, biological treatment (commonly A2O, MBBR, SBR or MBR depending on footprint and effluent targets), tertiary filtration or DAF polishing, and disinfection before discharge or reuse, with ZLD or sludge digestion only where reuse or discharge limits demand it. This event bears directly on the civil-works and site-preparation stage: a heritage-sensitive plot of at least 40 monuments and roughly 0.4 ha of burial ground (general industry range, not from the sources) had to be cleared before any process equipment could be installed. If your plant profile is a small municipal combined sewer and stormwater scheme in the 1 to 5 MLD range (around 5,000 to 25,000 population equivalent) targeting BOD below 30 mg/L and total suspended solids below 30 mg/L for surface-water discharge, this is the construction window in which civil works, heritage-clearance mitigation, and long-lead items such as screens, blowers and membrane modules are typically locked in. Operators scoping similar builds can benchmark against our municipal wastewater treatment reference, our integrated sewage treatment product line for small-footprint A2O/MBR packages, and the broader industries we serve hub for combined sewer and stormwater duty.
FAQ
What kind of plant is being built in Shushi?
A combined wastewater and stormwater treatment facility on a greenfield site in Shushi, with no design flow, capacity, treatment train or discharge standard published in the source reports, The Armenian Report reports. The 1 to 5 MLD sizing above is a general industry range, not from the sources.
What is the typical treatment train for a small combined-sewer plant in this class?
Screening and grit removal, primary clarification, biological stage (A2O, MBBR, SBR or MBR), tertiary filtration or DAF, and disinfection, with sludge handling sized to the effluent limit. This is a general industry range, not from the sources.
What is the indicative lead time for a packaged plant in the 1 to 5 MLD range?
Packaged A2O/MBR units in this class are typically delivered in 4 to 8 months for the equipment, with full civil works and commissioning taking 12 to 24 months, depending on site conditions and discharge consent. This is a general industry range, not from the sources.
What is the next milestone to watch on the Shushi scheme?
The sources do not publish a procurement timetable, contractor name, discharge permit or commissioning date, so the next datapoint to track is any Azerbaijani government or CHW update confirming the process design, contract award and start-up of the new plant, NEWS.am reports.
