Cultural Heritage Ombudsman: Azerbaijan continues to Albanianize Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh

ArmInfo. Alongside  the systematic destruction of historical and architectural monuments, khachkars and entire settlements in Artsakh, the Azerbaijani authorities are pursuing a policy of Albanianization of Armenian cultural heritage, distorting its authenticity. This was reported in a publication by the Ombudsman for Cultural Heritage of the Armenian Highlands on Facebook page. According to the publication, one of the targets of this policy was the Church of St. Stephen, located in the village of Khachen in the Askeran region of Artsakh. It is noted that bibliographic information about the church is very limited: writer Makar Barkhudaryants mentions a village called Seytishen in his work "Artsakh".

Furthermore, according to the source, the policy of Albanianization has been supplemented by the practice of orthodoxization of several Armenian churches. Thus, the Azerbaijani state propaganda presents the Ghazanchetsots Church in Shushi as the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Kanach Zham (or St. John the Baptist) Church as Albanian.

The statement recalls that the process of Albanianization of Armenian historical and architectural monuments in Azerbaijan began in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The basis of this policy was the theory of the Azerbaijani orientalist Ziya Bunyadov, according to which the historical and cultural monuments of Artsakh and Utik, created by the Armenian people, are of "Albanian origin". This theory was later developed by the Azerbaijani historian Farida Mamedova and other Azerbaijani falsifiers. In conclusion, it is noted that since then, the policy of Albanianization, carried out by Azerbaijan at the state level, has gone beyond the territories of Artsakh, Utik and Nakhichevan, aiming to appropriate a number of historical and architectural monuments located on the territory of Armenia, Western Armenia and Georgia.