Azerbaijan, together with Turkey, has begun to pursue a very dangerous ecclesiastical geopolitics. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), David Babayan, stated this commenting, at the request of Armenian News-NEWS.am, on the policy—declared by the Azerbaijani leadership—of destruction of Armenian heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh.
“Moreover, it is done on several fronts. Both during the 44-day war and especially after the war, the Armenian cultural heritage of Karabakh has severely suffered. Azerbaijan is currently committing a historical and cultural genocide in the occupied territories of the Artsakh Republic. Architectural and cultural monuments, churches and monasteries, cemeteries—both old and new—are being ruthlessly destroyed. The goal is to destroy the Armenian heritage, to eliminate all Armenian traces; moreover, the order is given by [Azerbaijan president Ilham] Aliyev himself—with his wife, the first vice-president of Azerbaijan, who, by the way, is an ambassador of goodwill.
But there are two trends here. After the whole world learned about the destruction of the Armenian Church of Hovhannes Mkrtich (Green Church) in Shushi, speculations began. The Azerbaijani side presents it as a Russian church and claims that construction works are underway there. First, the Russian church [there] was destroyed in the [19]20s. It was located in the center of Shushi, not far from the site where the monument to [Armenian statesman] Vazgen Sargsyan was erected in our days, which is now also destroyed by the Azerbaijani occupiers. The Green Church is the oldest religious building in Shushi today. It is the first Armenian church, also called ‘Karabakhtsots,’ meaning of Karabakh.
The Armenian part of Shushi consisted of districts, and the churches being built there corresponded to the geography of the origin of the people who inhabited them. The Church of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots is named as such after the village of Ghazanchi in Nakhichevan. The ‘Meghrotsots’ Church was founded by those who came from Meghri. The ‘Aguletsots’ Church—those who came from Agulis, Nakhichevan. And the Karabakhtsots was founded by the inhabitants of various regions of Karabakh. Now there is no Russian church in Shushi; it was in a completely different place and was destroyed 100 years ago. And why do they [the Azerbaijanis] do that? First of all, in order—in their opinion—to worsen the relations between the Russian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches. It is quite possible that with this cunning ‘project” they are trying to use the Russian community in Azerbaijan for far-reaching purposes.
