Baku Confirms it Demolished Stepanakert Cathedral

The before and after of Stepanakert’s Holy Mother of God Cathedral

The Azerbaijani government-affiliated Caucasus Muslims Board issued a statement Monday confirming the state-planned demolition of the Mother of God Cathedral in Stepanakert as well as a the St. Jacob church—a smaller edifice also in the occupied Artsakh capital.

The statement was a direct response to the condemnation voiced by the Holy See of Etchmiadzin last week. The Holy See accued Baku of continuing to “target Armenian Christian holy sites with the aim of erasing the Armenian trace from Artsakh.”

“This state-level vandalism once again proves that Azerbaijan’s anti-Armenian policy has not changed, which makes statements about establishing a stable and lasting peace with Armenia questionable,” Etchmiadzin.

Satellite image of Holy Mother of God Cathedral Satellite image of St. Jacob Church

The Azerbaijani religious group accused Etchmiadzin of politicizing the issue saying the last week’s statement was “a manifestation of hostility and disinformation.”

The Baku group rationalized the demolition of the two churches by saying that they were “illegally” constructed during what it termed as “the occupation of Azerbaijan’s territories,” and adding the demolition “cannot be distorted in any way as the destruction of religious or cultural heritage.”

The Caucasus Islamic group claimed that Azerbaijanis who returned to occupied Stepanakert in recent month have appealed to Baku authorities urging them “to demolish all structures that did not exist in these territories before the occupation.”

Lernik Hovhannisyan, the chairman of the Artsakh Diocesan Council, questioned Azerbaijani claims of “indigenous” Azerbaijanis having ever lived in Stepanakert in droves and especially not in the area of the city where the demolished churches were located.

“Specifically, in Stepanakert, the Armenian population has always been predominant, that is, Stepanakert has always been a city with a majority of Armenians. Azerbaijanis lived to a certain extent in the upper Krkzhan district. They were brought in from different regions in the 1960s to change the demographic situation of the NKAO [Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast]. So, the statement of the Union of Caucasian Muslims has nothing to do with reality,” Hovhannesyan told Azatutyun.am in an interview on Monday.

The Azerbaijanis also claimed that the demolition was in line with international laws, without mentioning any such precedent.

Baku speaks of international humanitarian law, justifying the destruction of churches. The Azerbaijani group claimed that the chruches were not built with the consent of Azerbaijani authorities, and by demolishing them they are restoring legality, which was violated during the years of the what they claim to be Armenian “occupation.”

Hovhannesyan contended that what Azerbaijan has destroyed the culture of indigenous Armenians of Artsakh.
“It does not stand up to any international law, because the right of the Armenian population of Artsakh to self-determination as residents of Nagorno-Karabakh has long been recognized in all statements and documents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. If Armenians were occupiers then why did the Soviet Union create the NKAO within the Azerbaijani SSR?” Hovhannesyan said.

The Muslim Board of Azerbaijan presents grounds for the destruction of churches built in 30 years, but still does not mention anything about why they demolished the Green Hour and Mokhrenes churches—built in the 18th and 19th centuries—in occupied Shushi.

Baku praises itself as being “tolerant,” and claims that in that country “a church, a mosque, and a synagogue operate side by side.”

“If they are so tolerant and preserve, among other things, Armenian churches, citing the example of Baku, then where are the 27,000 monuments of Nakhichevan, the monuments of northern Artsakh?” Hovhannesyan said in the interview.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Prague headquarters researched Google’s satellite maps of where the two churches were located and observed that there white pavement where the huge Holy Mother of God Cathedral once stood and black soil is covering where the St. Jacob Church was erected.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan categorically stated that his government will not seek international condemnation of the cathedral’s demolition, nor would he condemn Baku for the destruction of this and other holy sites in occupied Artsakh.

“We need to be careful about these topics, especially now, because such topics are a double-edged sword,” Pashinyan said.

—