A church building in an area of Nagorno-Karabakh controlled by Azerbaijan has been desecrated.
The cross on the roof of the Armenian Church of the Holy Resurrection has been removed. An Armenian-language inscription has also been erased.
Additionally, images published in the Azerbaijani media show that the walls of the building have been defaced with graffiti.
It is also alleged that objects belonging to the church have been removed.
Azerbaijan’s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh (mountainous Karabakh), an ethnic-Armenian enclave within the Muslim-majority Republic of Azerbaijan, began at the end of September 2020. The conflict ended in November 2020 with Azerbaijan having taken significant territories which had formerly belonged to Armenian communities.
Nagorno-Karabakh is part of the historic homeland of the Armenian people, who around 301 AD became the first Christian nation, and the region still contains many ancient churches and monasteries. Karabakh was placed within Azerbaijan by the USSR in 1923.
In November 2020 it was reported that an Armenian cemetery near Hadrut had been vandalised.
In February 2022 Azerbaijan set up a new working group to “remove fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples”.
Azerbaijan denies the existence of Armenian Christian sites in Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing falsely that the sites belong to a group known as “Caucasian Albanians”. This theory is not supported by historians.
Ask the Lord to comfort Armenian Christians, distressed at the vandalism done to church buildings, cemeteries and other Christian sites in areas now controlled by Azerbaijan. Pray for the safety of Armenians who remain in Nagorno-Karabakh as well as those in vulnerable areas of Armenia itself.
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