It was the Azerbaijani-Turkish troops that destroyed the Russian church in Shushi in 1920. This is what Foreign Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Davit Babayan told Armenian News-NEWS.am, commenting on the fact that Azerbaijan is turning the Armenian “Green Church” in Shushi into an Orthodox church.
“It is important to closely follow all the actions of Azerbaijan and understand why they are taking those actions. Here everything is clear. First, Armenophobia has been, is and will be the main value system of the Azerbaijani state. In this context, the Azerbaijanis are destroying everything Armenian. Everything Armenian has been destroyed in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan since nobody can monitor. Churches and monuments are a different story. They can’t destroy them since they are very well-known around the world. Among those churches are Dadivank Monastery and Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, as well as “Green Church”, which is actually the Armenian John the Baptist Church and is named Ghazanchetsots. When the Armenian meliks established Shushi, it was established as the future capital of Armenia.
The “Green Church” is one of the oldest Armenian churches of Shushi and the second name of the city. And “Karabaghtsots” means that those born in Karabakh lived in that territory. To conceal this, Azerbaijan is destroying those monuments.
Our priests are captives there. They can’t leave since they won’t be allowed to come back. At the same time, the Azerbaijanis can’t say that the church in Shushi is Albanian since there has never been an Albanian ethnos.
Why is Azerbaijan destroying everything Armenian? First, they are concealing the history. They want to show that the “Green Church” is a Russian church. We see what Turkey is going to split the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Currently, Turkey and Azerbaijan are leading religious policy around the world, and this is nothing but split of Christians.
Baku is leading a multilateral policy, and we Armenians need to show the world what is happening and tell about Azerbaijan’s real goals.
Whereas the Azerbaijanis destroyed all Armenian monuments in Nakhchivan, they won’t be able to do this in Artsakh since there are Russian peacekeepers, and this makes things complicated. However, there is no doubt that the same thing that happened in Nakhchivan is happening in the occupied sector of Artsakh,” he said.
