By applying the concept of societal security as a method of analysis, the aim of this
paper is to shed a light on how cultural property may become a victim of deliberate
destruction in nowadays’ armed conflicts evolving along ethnically or religiously
defined societal fault-lines, by drawing on examples primarily from Yugoslavian wars,
the Armenian-Azeri tensions and destructions perpetrated by ISIL in Iraq. As a more
and more significant security challenge at an international level, symbolic attacks
on cultural property embodying a certain group’s identity can be prompted by various
motives ranging from assimilation or acculturation efforts of a certain community,
through aspirations to get control over political institutions by minority groups,
to a tool of intimidation or propaganda in the hands of terrorist organisations.
