This Armenian Cemetery in the city of Mashhad is adjacent to St. Mesrop Church. It is the only Armenian cemetery in Mashhad and is administered by the Tehran Eparchy of the Echmiadzin Patriarchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Armenian: Հայ Առաքելական եկեղեցու Էջմիածնի պատրիարքության Թեհրանի թեմ).

In the past the area of the cemetery was considerably bigger. But Mashhad has grown and the area where the cemetery is location became part of the busy city center. Consequently, part of the cemetery was destroyed to give way to building projects. In the northern corner of the cemetery, the Municipal Building of the 2nd Disctrics of Mashhad was built, whereas the eastern corner was taken by the Motahhari Telecommunication Center and the extension of the Shahid Karimi Boulevard. It is estimated that altogether around 2 584 square meters of the original cemetery area have been destroyed in this way. The graves are said to have moved to other parts of the cemetery.

In view of its cultural value, the Armenian Cemetery in Mashhad is listed as National Memorial of Iran no 31444.

As it the case with other Armenian cemeteries in Iran, e.g. in Isfahan, apart from the Armenian graves, which make up the majority of the graves at this cemetery, there are also graves of non-Armenians, of other Christian denominations, there.

One large non-Armenian plot catches the eye because of its tidiness and the Catholic crosses. These are the graves of Poles. Why a special plot, and why these twenty or so Polish names? The story goes back to WW2 and to the tragedy Poles suffered at Soviet hands.

After its invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union began an ruthless policy of ethnic cleansing. 22 thousand Polish active army officers and officers of the reserve force were massacred by the NKVD in April-May 1940 (cf. the virtual cemeteries: Kharkov Polish War Cemetery, Katyn Forest Massacre Site of 1940 on findagrave.com and the Miednoye Polish war Cemetery not yet created on findagrave as of Feb. 2022). And hundreds of thousands of Poles were forcefully taken away from their homes, separated from their elder family members, deprived of a normal life and deported in cattle trains to Soviet forced labour camps in Siberia in 1939-41. Some historians estimate this number to be as high as 1.875.000 persons. After Nazi Germany's invasion of Soviet Union in June 1941, Stalin was forced to reconsider his foreign policy, however. He began to co-operate with the Allies, the Polish government in exile being one of them, in fighting Germany. Until then, he was not interested in doing so and regarded Nazi Germany as a friend of the Soviet Union. He agreed for these hundreds of thousands of Poles to be freed from their imprisonment in those forced labour camps. They were allowed to leave to the Soviet Union. Their gateway to freedom away from the "inhuman land", as they call the Soviet Union until this very day, led through the territory of Iran. Thus, Iran became the safe haven for 121 000 Poles in 1942. Most of them were just passing through, on their way to Europe (the soldiers of the Army of General Anders) to fight Nazi Germany or to India (Polish war orphans or half-orphans), to wait there until the end of WW2. The route of some of them was through Mashhad. Those who died there, were buried in this cemetery.

Apart from this Polish plot, there are also graves of Americans, Canadians, French, Georgians, Russians. Equally multinational are the inscriptions. Walking among the graves, apart from Armenian and Polish, the curious and careful visitor encounters texts in all of these languages with the addition of Aramaic.

The people buried at this cemetery were of the following Christian denominations: Armenian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Catholic, and probably Khaldean.

It is not easy or straightforward to visit the cemetery. Normally, prospective visitors have to contact the National Heritage Organisation (Persian: Sazeman-e Miras-e Farhangi) and organise the visit with the Armenian Patriarchy.

(Ivonna Nowicka, Feb. 2022)

REFERENCES:

https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/کلیسا_و_قبرستان_ارامنه_مشهد
(in Persian)

https://www.tasnimnews.com/fa/news/1396/08/08/1559021/کلیسا-و-قبرستان-تاریخی-ارامنه-مشهد/photo/11
(in Persian)

https://www.kojaro.com/attraction/6777-قبرستان-ارامنه-مشهد/
(in Persian)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Mesrop_church_in_Mashhad_4.jpg