Armenian Movement of France leader urges church authorities, historians and heritage defenders to avoid backing anti-Armenia ideological  war

ArmInfo. The head of the Armenian Movement of France, Jacques- Raffi Papazian, has urged the Catholic church authorities, historians and heritage defenders to refrain from supporting Azerbaijan's ideological war against Armenia. Papazian made this statement in response to the international conference on "Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity"  in the Vatican on April 10. "We will not remain silent in the face of this moral betrayal: to erase Christian Armenia means to deny the origins of Christianity, which have taken root and are embodied in this nation," the statement of the Movement emphasizes.

Papazian also believes that the Vatican, in addition to funding the renovation provided by Azerbaijan, is waging a real ideological war against Armenia. In this vein, the movement recalled that on April 3, 2025, in a solemn ceremony in the Vatican, the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the Holy See Ilgar Mukhtarov was presented with the highest award of the Pope - the Grand Cross of the Order of Pius IX. In the statement, he explained that traditionally this award is given to figures who personify peace, justice and Christian brotherhood, but its presentation caused a scandal.

Additionally, as noted by the representatives of the movement, a week after the award was presented, on April 10, an international conference on the topic "Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity" was held at the Pontifical Gregorian University. As clarified in the statement of the Armenian movement, the real purpose of this meeting was to replace the Armenian memory with the narrative of the regime, which denies the centuries-old presence of the Armenian people in Artsakh. "The use of the controversial term "Caucasian Albania" to attribute Armenian churches to Azerbaijanis is at the core of a white genocide project: a silent extermination without immediate bloodshed, but a deep one aimed at erasing a people through falsification, appropriation and organized amnesia. The holding of such a conference by the Vatican is a serious act that must be strongly condemned. It is tantamount to ignoring the stones, manuscripts, liturgies and tombs that have testified to the presence of Armenian Christians on this land for centuries," the statement concluded.