YEREVAN — Recently, the Armenian Mirror-Spectator reported that Stepanakert’s St. Hakob Church was razed. Karabakh Armenians, upon learning of this, immediately began to express concern that the Holy Mother of God Cathedral (Sourp Asdzvadzamor Hovanu mayr dajar), which was consecrated in December 2019, would also suffer the same fate. Unfortunately, their concern was not long in coming, and today, on April 21, reports have spread that the cathedral has been demolished.
By now, according to Artsakh Cultural Heritage Ombudsman Hovik Avanesov, more than 1,000 cases of vandalism have been recorded in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh).
The Artsakh Tourism and Cultural Development Agency issued a statement which states: “On the eve of the 111th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, we record that the Azerbaijani occupation administration has destroyed the Church of the Holy Mother of God in Stepanakert.”
The agency goes on to write: “This is not just the demolition of a church. This is a continuation of the same policy that led to the Armenian Genocide a century ago. Today it manifests itself in new forms: as a cultural genocide and a planned process of erasure of the homeland, the goal of which is the final elimination of the Armenian historical memory, culture and spiritual presence in Artsakh. Not only buildings are being destroyed, but also the people’s identity, past and right to the future.”
The Azerbaijani media did not do this in a showy manner, as in the case of the parliament building, when all the media outlets reported how they were demolishing evidence of what they called the separatist regime. In the case of the church, attentive Karabakh Armenians, who are familiar with all the buildings there, noticed that the videos distributed by the Azerbaijanis do not include the giant cathedral, which stood high in the center of the city and was visible from everywhere.
“We die while living. They demolished the Church of the Holy Mother of God,” wrote one former Stepanakert resident on social media, like many others unable to contain the emotions this act caused.
