It claimed that the Azerbaijani authorities had “both legal and moral grounds” for tearing down them.

“The demolition of two illegal buildings constructed during the [Armenian] occupation cannot be considered a destruction of religious or cultural heritage,” it said in a statement. “Formerly displaced persons returning to their homeland have repeatedly appealed to [Azerbaijani] state and judicial bodies, demanding their dismantling.”

Evidence, including satellite images obtained by RFE/RL, of the recent demolition of Stepanakert’s Holy Mother of God Cathedral emerged last week. Earlier this month, Armenian media published photographs suggesting that the smaller Church of St. Jacob has been razed to the ground.

The images sparked an uproar from exiled Karabakh activists in Yerevan as well as Armenian opposition and public figures and the Armenian Apostolic Church. The church’s Mother See in Echmiadzin charged that the “state-level vandalism” is part of Baku’s efforts to “erase the Armenian trace from Artsakh.”

By contrast, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian pointedly declined to condemn the demolitions. The Armenian government essentially stopped accusing Azerbaijan of systematically desecrating or destroying Armenian monuments in Karabakh after Pashinian first recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory in 2022.

The imposing cathedral was consecrated by the Armenian Church in 2019 after almost 13 years of construction. Its underground section was used by many Stepanakert residents as a bomb shelter during the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijani war.

Several other Karabakh Armenian churches have also reportedly been destroyed since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. The process appears to have accelerated following Azerbaijan’s full recapture of Karabakh in 2023.

Catholicos Garegin II, the church’s supreme head, decried it during a conference hosted by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Switzerland last May. Sheikh-ul-Islam Allahshukur Pashazade, Azerbaijan’s top Shia Muslim cleric closely linked to the government, responded by accusing the Armenian Church of spreading “provocative, revanchist propaganda.” Pashinian launched his controversial campaign to oust Garegin shortly after that conference.

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