According to the International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos), the Azerbaijan government removed 800 khachkars in 1998. Though the destruction was halted following protests from UNESCO, it resumed four years later. By January 2003 "the 1,500-year-old cemetery had completely been flattened" according to Icomos. On December 8, 2010, the American Association for the Advancement of Science released a report entitled "Satellite Images Show Disappearance of Armenian Artifacts in Azerbaijan". The report contained the analysis of high resolution satellite images of the Julfa cemetery, which verified the destruction of the khachkars.