Vatican university condemned of legitimizing Azerbaijan’s efforts to exterminate Armenian Christians
Faith leaders and human rights groups condemned a Vatican university’s decision to host an Azerbaijani state-sponsored conference, arguing that the event offered a platform to Azeri historical revisionists attempting to erase Armenian history “from disputed territories between both countries”, The Christian Post writes.
Orthodox Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, the ecumenical director of the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church of America, believes money is the reason behind the “Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity” event.
The conference, which took place on April 10 at the Pontifical Gregorian University, featured speakers from Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Russia, South Korea, Poland, Italy, Germany, France, the United States and Lithuania.
In a statement to The Pillar last week, Aykazian asserted that Azerbaijan’s funding of Vatican projects has influenced its approach to the country’s ongoing conflict with Armenia. The archbishop claimed that some cardinals and Vatican officials have received funding from Azerbaijan.
In response to an inquiry from The Christian Post, a spokesperson for the Pontifical Gregorian University said that the institution was not involved in organizing the event, nor did it “grant any patronage or any collaboration.”
“Its holding at this venue was due to the mere rental of a lecture hall,” the spokesperson told CP.
According to The Pillar, promotional materials for the event included “distinctly Azeri reads on West Asian history,” such as a display of the medieval Armenian monastery of Dadivank. The display included the Azeri government’s claim that the Armenian monastery belonged to the “Caucasian Albanian” culture.
Earlier this month, the watchdog group Artsakh Monument Watch, an independent academic platform, raised additional concerns about the conference, claiming that the organizers arranged the event in secret.
“The Azerbaijani side kept the information about the conference top secret and made it public 1-2 days before the start of its work,” Artsakh Monument Watch wrote in a statement on its website. “The entrance to the conference was also closed.”
Several participants at the conference have a history of promoting “Azerbaijani propaganda,” according to the watchdog. One of the conference participants that Artsakh Monument Watch highlighted is the Russian clergyman Archpriest Alexy (Andrey V. Nikonorov).
As noted, the clergyman has a history of making anti-Armenian statements, all while presenting himself as a scientist.
“The Russian clergyman, ‘knowledgeable’ in history, who also defends the interests of Orthodoxy, seems to consider it normal that the Armenian churches of Shushi are declared Orthodox, and is silent about the Russian churches destroyed during the Soviet years,” the watchdog group stated.
