Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate Defends Gandzasar’s Armenian Identity, Accuses Baku of Rewriting History

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem on Monday condemned Azerbaijan’s portrayal of Gandzasar Monastery as non-Armenian, accusing Baku of rewriting the history of one of Nagorno-Karabakh’s most prominent Christian sites and criticizing foreign diplomats for taking part in a government-organized visit there.

In a Sept. 15 statement, the Patriarchate also delivered a rare public rebuke of Armenia’s government, saying Yerevan has failed to respond forcefully to what it called the systematic revision of Armenian Christian heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, known to Armenians as Artsakh.

The statement followed a visit to Gandzasar by Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, alongside diplomats and other foreign representatives accredited in Azerbaijan. During the visit, Hajiyev presented the medieval monastery as part of the heritage of Caucasian Albania, a historical kingdom that existed in the South Caucasus.

The Patriarchate rejected that account, saying Azerbaijani officials used reproductions of manuscripts and a carefully prepared presentation to challenge Gandzasar’s Armenian Christian identity.

It reserved some of its strongest criticism for the diplomats who attended.

“Your visit lent the weight of your diplomatic presence to an ongoing political effort by the Aliyev regime which aims to detach Artsakh’s Christian monuments from their well-documented history,” the Patriarchate said.

The church said foreign representatives had a responsibility to independently examine the historical claims presented to them, arguing that their presence allowed Azerbaijan’s narrative to circulate with the appearance of international legitimacy.

The Patriarchate then turned its criticism toward Yerevan, calling on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s government to publicly condemn Azerbaijan’s actions.

It warned that the pursuit of peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan should not come at the expense of Armenian cultural heritage and questioned whether a durable settlement could be reached while disputes over the history and identity of Armenian religious sites continue.

“A country that offers diplomatic assurances with one hand and stages the public degradation of our Armenian Christian monuments with the other, cannot serve as an authentic partner in such a peace,” the statement said.

The Patriarchate accused the Armenian government of responding with “silence and half-measures,” saying a lack of stronger opposition could encourage further attempts to reinterpret Armenian Christian monuments.

It also alleged that Azerbaijan has spent considerable diplomatic resources seeking international support for its interpretation of Christian history, including lobbying efforts directed at the Vatican.

The Patriarchate contrasted those efforts with the extensive study of Armenian Christian history at institutions around the world. It cited Armenian manuscript collections and academic programs at the Matenadaran in Yerevan, the British Library, Oxford’s Bodleian Library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard, UCLA and Columbia University, among others.

Gandzasar’s Cathedral of St. John the Baptist was built in the 13th century under Hasan-Jalal Dola, the Armenian ruler of Khachen. Armenian inscriptions preserved at the monastery record its construction and its connection to the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The dispute comes during growing concern over the preservation and presentation of Armenian cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh following Azerbaijan’s September 2023 military offensive and the subsequent displacement of the region’s Armenian population.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, one of the historic sees of the Armenian Apostolic Church, said it would continue defending Armenian Christian heritage wherever the history of Artsakh is challenged.

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