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Azerbaijan destroys Christian sites and heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh

Many observers have seen the recent conflicts between Azerbaijan and Armenia as a revival of the dark days of the Armenian Genocide of the early twentieth century, when the Ottoman government pursued the systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey, as well as over 1,000,000 Greek Orthodox Christians and 300,000 Assyrian Christians. The similarity between the Armenian Genocide and recent events was also evidenced in Azerbaijan’s targeting of churches

“Azerbaijan destroys Christian sites, heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh,” by Jack Bethel, Christian Daily International, July 19, 2024:
Azerbaijan is guilty of “cultural genocide” for destroying Christian sites in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and falsely claiming that Armenian religious presence there never existed, according to a report by a legal advocacy group.

The European Centre for Law & Justice (ECLJ)’s report lists eradication of “churches, monasteries, khachkars [cross-stones] and other cultural artifacts that tell of the faith and culture of the Armenian people.”

Azerbaijan gained control of the majority of Nagorno after the Second Karabakh War, September 2020 to November 2020. Dozens of Armenian Christian heritage sites in Nagorno-Karabakh were destroyed, damaged, or closed to the public during that period, according to the June report, “The Systematic Erasure of Armenian Christian Heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh.”

There are now 500 sites under Azerbaijan’s control, with 6,000 Armenian monuments, the report states. Foreign observers are banned from the sites, but satellite surveillance has revealed the destruction.

Churches damaged or destroyed, as listed in the report, include Meghretsots Holy Mother of God Church, the seventh-century Vankasar Church in Tigranakert, St. John’s Cathedral of the Mother of God in Stepanaker, and Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi, defaced with “multiple religious symbols… removed from the church, including the unique angels on the building’s gate, the domes of the church, and the cathedral’s cross.”

Under the pretense of renovation, the Azerbaijani government vandalized the Surb Sargis Church, built in 1279 in Tsar village of Karvachar, according to the report.

“Azerbaijani efforts to restore this church have taken the form of destroying religious symbols and enclosing the area from view via a large iron fence,” the report states.

Two historic polished stone slabs at the same church site, decorated with Christian artwork and Armenian language inscriptions, were smashed.

“Thus, this destruction has not only deprived Armenia of a unique piece of its heritage, but it has removed undeniable evidence of the Armenian origins of the church,” the report states.

Other incidents include the razing of an 18th century church building, St. Sargis of Hadrut in Mokhrenes, in March 2022, and the Azerbaijanis “completely cleared the land and have begun building a new structure atop the grounds of the church.”

St. John the Baptist Church in Shushi revealed signs of Azerbaijani bomb damage in 2020, as shown in satellite imagery earlier this year (April 4), and the building was destroyed, according to the report….

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