Azerbaijan, together with Turkey, has begun to pursue a very dangerous ecclesiastical geopolitics. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), David Babayan, stated this commenting, at the request of Armenian News-NEWS.am, on the policy—declared by the Azerbaijani leadership—of destruction of Armenian heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh.

"Moreover, it is done on several fronts. Both during the 44-day war and especially after the war, the Armenian cultural heritage of Karabakh has severely suffered. Azerbaijan is currently committing a historical and cultural genocide in the occupied territories of the Artsakh Republic. Architectural and cultural monuments, churches and monasteries, cemeteries—both old and new—are being ruthlessly destroyed. The goal is to destroy the Armenian heritage, to eliminate all Armenian traces; moreover, the order is given by [Azerbaijan president Ilham] Aliyev himself—with his wife, the first vice-president of Azerbaijan, who, by the way, is an ambassador of goodwill.

But there are two trends here. After the whole world learned about the destruction of the Armenian Church of Hovhannes Mkrtich (Green Church) in Shushi, speculations began. The Azerbaijani side presents it as a Russian church and claims that construction works are underway there. First, the Russian church [there] was destroyed in the [19]20s. It was located in the center of Shushi, not far from the site where the monument to [Armenian statesman] Vazgen Sargsyan was erected in our days, which is now also destroyed by the Azerbaijani occupiers. The Green Church is the oldest religious building in Shushi today. It is the first Armenian church, also called ‘Karabakhtsots,’ meaning of Karabakh.

The Armenian part of Shushi consisted of districts, and the churches being built there corresponded to the geography of the origin of the people who inhabited them. The Church of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots is named as such after the village of Ghazanchi in Nakhichevan. The ‘Meghrotsots’ Church was founded by those who came from Meghri. The ‘Aguletsots’ Church—those who came from Agulis, Nakhichevan. And the Karabakhtsots was founded by the inhabitants of various regions of Karabakh. Now there is no Russian church in Shushi; it was in a completely different place and was destroyed 100 years ago. And why do they [the Azerbaijanis] do that? First of all, in order—in their opinion—to worsen the relations between the Russian Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic Churches. It is quite possible that with this cunning ‘project” they are trying to use the Russian community in Azerbaijan for far-reaching purposes.

But that, too, is not all. As it is known, the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance is negotiating with the Vatican. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation funds projects (…). At the same time, the Azerbaijani side called on—with advice to and in practice—the Vatican experts to contribution to the restoration of the historical and cultural heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh. Thus, they are trying to disrupt the relations between the Armenian Apostolic Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, there are also Russian Orthodox churches in those occupied territories. Among those already destroyed is the Russian Orthodox Church in the Martuni region—it destroyed during the first Azerbaijani-Karabakh war. As we can see, they are very far-reaching goals of deterioration of relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches.

Also, Azerbaijan intends to rebuild the so-called “Albanian Church;” to achieve the autocephaly of this church through the Turkey-controlled Patriarchate of Constantinople. It is planned to declare [the Armenian] Dadivank [Church] a cultural center. They [the Azerbaijanis] will give a number of famous Armenian churches in Artsakh to this church. They cannot destroy them because they are famous, so they will try to destroy them not physically, but historically and culturally, for whatever purpose the ‘restoration works’ are presented.

In general, the trajectory of dividing the Christendom is clearly visible. This poses a threat to the whole civilized society," David Babayan concluded.