The Christian Post: Those who laughed in Gandzasar and Dadivank should explain what they found amusing
Power may seize territory. It cannot seize truth.Azerbaijan now controls Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh. The ethnic Armenian government that existed there for decades is gone. More than 120,000 Armenians were forcibly removed from their ancestral homeland following months of blockade, severe deprivation, and Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive, The Christian Post writes. Azerbaijan now possesses the towns where they lived, the cemeteries where they buried their dead, and the monasteries where Armenian Christians worshiped for centuries. That control carries a moral responsibility. It does not give Azerbaijan the right to rewrite the identity of the people it displaced or the sacred places they left behind.
Instead, Azerbaijan appears determined to win an argument with history itself. This month, its government brought approximately 150 representatives from 58 countries and nine international organizations on an official tour of Nagorno-Karabakh. At the medieval monasteries of Gandzasar and Dadivank, Hikmet Hajiyev, President Ilham Aliyev’s foreign policy adviser, presented the sites as monuments of ancient Caucasian Albanian Christianity. Azerbaijani officials accused Armenians of altering the buildings and compromising their original character.
Caucasian Albania was real. The fiction is the attempt to use its existence to erase the Armenian medieval identity of monuments whose walls record that history. Gandzasar contains extensive Armenian inscriptions documenting its construction, patrons, and religious affiliation. An inscription by the thirteenth century prince Hasan Jalal identifies him as the builder and records the church’s consecration in 1240. Dadivank likewise contains Armenian inscriptions and khachkars, the distinctive carved cross stones of Armenian Christianity․ This is more than an argument over architecture. It is a question of human dignity and moral responsibility.
The Christian Post also presents examples of vandalism committed in Nakhichevan. Caucasus Heritage Watch documented the destruction of 108 Armenian monasteries, churches, and cemeteries between 1997 and 2011. This represented 98% of the Armenian cultural sites the project documented there. Among the losses was the medieval cemetery at Julfa, which once contained thousands of Armenian khachkars. The cemetery was systematically destroyed, and Azerbaijan later denied that it had existed while preventing independent investigators from examining the site.
Now physical traces of Armenian life are disappearing in Nagorno-Karabakh. Satellite monitoring has documented the destruction of churches, cemeteries, and villages. Karintak has been almost entirely razed. In Stepanakert, Azerbaijan has demolished two Armenian churches, including the Holy Mother of God Cathedral, which was consecrated in 2019. A cemetery in Shushi containing Armenian and Russian graves, medieval khachkars, and nineteenth century gravestones was also destroyed. The international community must demand that Azerbaijan grant UNESCO and independent heritage specialists sustained access to Nagorno-Karabakh. There must be a comprehensive inventory of Armenian churches, monasteries, inscriptions, manuscripts, khachkars, and cemeteries. Their Armenian identity must be documented and preserved. Forcibly displaced Armenians must also receive meaningful access to their sacred places and family graves.
‘’The diplomats who participated in the tour also bear responsibility. They represented governments and international institutions. A tour controlled by Azerbaijan is no substitute for independent observation. Those who laughed should explain what they found amusing. Those who remained silent should now demand transparency. Diplomatic courtesy must never become complicity in cultural erasure,’’- the article reads.
Gandzasar and Dadivank are sacred places where generations prayed, worshiped, buried their dead, and confessed their faith in Jesus Christ.
Azerbaijan may control the territory, but it must not be permitted to control the truth. No government has the moral authority to erase a people and then claim their sacred history as its own.
Peace cannot be built upon forced displacement, destroyed churches, and rewritten history. Peace built upon a lie is merely injustice waiting for the world to forget.
