Armenpress presents the statement:
“The strategy of the top leadership of Azerbaijan during the months following the ceasefire agreement, which ended the war against Artsakh and was signed on the 9th November by the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, along with falsification and militant rhetoric shared on social media and international platforms, leave no doubt that the present government of Azerbaijan will do its utmost to annihilate the efforts for establishing peace in the region and for de-Armenization of Artsakh.
Due to hate speech, neglecting Armenians and everything connected with the Armenians, Armenophobia has become an important component of identity of the Azerbaijani society.
The government of Azerbaijan that “has made achievements” in practices on alienation of indigenous people, ethnic cleansing, periodically recurring mass murders over the past century, pursues a policy of falsification of history of the region, destruction or “Albanization” of the Armenian cultural heritage to achieve its national goals these days. Discussion of an unfounded assertion with the involvement of Ilham Aliyev to declare the town of Shushi the cultural capital of the Turkic world, statement of the president of the Association of architects of Azerbaijan on destruction of the Armenian churches of Artsakh, appointment of Rafik Danakari, an Udi as a priest at the Dadivank monastery and demonstration of theatrical “ritual” ceremonies, provocative statements in the media about 300 “Albanian” churches in Artsakh are irrefutable evidences of implementation of this policy. The policy of destruction, alienation of the Armenian cultural heritage is presented to the international community as a step to reinstatement of the religious right of the Albanian nation, using for this purpose representatives of the Udi people, who live in Azerbaijan in the status of hostage. Currently, efforts are being made to implement the newly established project of the “Udi” Church. It became an important tool for the anti-Armenian national goal and falsification of history. The government of Azerbaijan never misses an opportunity to announce that the “Udi” Church is a successor of the “Albanian” Church and has the right to dispose the churches located within the territory of Artsakh, historical Utik and even modern-day Turkey, which are represented by Azerbaijani scholars-falsificators as Albanian churches.
The meanness of this policy that does not maintain any criticism in the scientific sense and is minimally relevant to morality in the political sense, becomes less ambiguous when we look back at the history of the Albanian Church and historical path of the Udi people.
Historical evidence suggests that throughout history the Albanian Church was closely related to the Armenian Church. After the period of apostles' teaching it was reestablished by Gregory, the grandson of Gregory the Illuminator in 330-332, and in the course of subsequent history was a part of the hierarchical system of the Armenian Church “from the spiritual point of view”.
The heads of the Albanian Church were ordained by Catholicoi of the Armenian Church or sometimes upon their consent.
During Medieval Period the Church of Caucasian Albania was completely Armenized, when in the 15th century the See of Catholicos was relocated to Gandzasar, the phrase “Catholicos of Albania” remained an honorary title, inherited from the past.
In order to hide cases of destruction of objects of the Armenian cultural heritage and vandalism within the territories that came under control of Azerbaijan, statements are circulated by the head of the Azerbaijani state that Armenians allegedly destroyed 64 mosques of the 67 in the territory of Artsakh. This statement is an obvious lie and has political connotations. It is sufficient to note that according to the list of historical and cultural monuments protected by the state, which was approved by the government of Azerbaijan in 1988, twenty-seven mosques were recorded within the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region and neighboring areas. In this list it is mentioned that there are 282 monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh. Currently, 3900 m...
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