Azeris bar pilgrims, top Karabakh cleric from entering Dadivank

PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijani troops have barred Nagorno-Karabakh pilgrims and clerics from entering the medieval Armenian monastery of Dadivank, Pastinfo reports citing the press service of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Father Vahram Melikyan, head of the Information Services Department of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, said the Azeri troops the Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh, Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamian and a group of pilgrims were denied entry, allegedly "due to the coronavirus pandemic". Melikyan revealed that the Bishop was supposed to preside over a rite of ordination for a priest-in-residence, which was agreed with the command of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in advance.

Father Vahram said the Azerbaijani troops failed to at least deliver food brought for the monks serving in the monastery.

"It is obvious that the Azerbaijani side tried to obstruct the ordination which was arranged at the Gandzasar monastery that same evening," Melikyan said.

Azerbaijan has earlier too banned Armenians from visiting the holy sites that have come under Baku's control in the recent war. Furthermore, during hostilities, Azerbaijani forces launched two targeted attacks on the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Cathedral in Shushi. After taking control of the city, they destroyed the domes of Saint John the Baptist Church. Azerbaijan earlier "restored" a church by replacing its Armenian inscription with glass art.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.