Azerbaijan and Turkey Begin Conducting Extremely Dangerous Religious Geopolitics

Azerbaijan, together with Turkey, has started to conduct extremely dangerous religious geopolitics. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Artsakh, Davit Babayan, when commenting on the Azerbaijani leadership's declared policy of destroying Armenian heritage in the occupied territories of Artsakh, at the request of NEWS.am.

“Moreover, this is being done on several fronts. Both during the 44-day war and especially after it, the cultural heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh has suffered severely. Currently, Azerbaijan is carrying out a historical-cultural genocide in the occupied territories of the Republic of Artsakh. Architectural and cultural monuments, churches and monasteries, as well as graves—both old and new—are ruthlessly destroyed. The goal is the annihilation of Armenian heritage, the erasure of all Armenian traces, with the order being given personally by Aliyev along 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 St. John the Baptist (Green Church) in Shushi, speculations began. The Azerbaijani side presents it as a Russian church and claims that construction works are taking place there. Firstly, the Russian church was destroyed in the 1920s. It was located in the center of Shushi, not far from where the monument to Vazgen Sargsyan was erected, which has also been destroyed by Azerbaijani occupiers. The Green Church today is the oldest religious structure in Shushi. It is the first Armenian church, also called the “Karabakh Church.” Shushi's Armenian part was composed of neighborhoods, and the churches built there corresponded to the origin of the people who inhabited them. The Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Church is named after the village of Ghazanchi in Nakhichevan. The “Meghri Church” was founded by those coming from Meghri. The “Agulietsots Church” was established by those from Agulis in Nakhichevan. The Karabakh Church was founded by residents from different regions of Karabakh. Now there is no Russian church in Shushi; it was absolutely in another place and was destroyed 100 years ago.

So why are they doing this? Primarily to, in their opinion, worsen the relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is quite possible that with this cunning 'project,' they are trying to use Azerbaijan’s Russian community for far-reaching purposes.

But this is not all. As is well known, the Azerbaijani-Turkish alliance is negotiating with the Vatican. The Heydar Aliyev Foundation is financing projects, the restoration works of the Comodilli caves. Simultaneously, the Azerbaijani side has practically called on the Vatican specialists to contribute to the restoration of the historical-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. Furthermore, there are also Russian Orthodox churches in those occupied territories. Among those already destroyed is the Russian Orthodox church in the Martuni region (destroyed during the first Azerbaijani-Karabakh war). As we can see, there are very far-reaching goals aimed at worsening the relations between the Russian Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches.

Azerbaijan also intends to recreate the so-called Albanian church and achieve its autocephaly through the Patriarchate of Constantinople controlled by Turkey. It is planned to declare Dadivank a cultural center. This church will be assigned some well-known Armenian churches of Artsakh. They cannot physically destroy them due to their fame; therefore, they will try to annihilate them not physically, but in the historical-cultural sense, which is why the “restoration works” are being represented.

In general, a clear trajectory of dividing the Christian world is observed. This poses a threat to the entire civilized community,” summarized Davit Babayan.