Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, at a meeting with the newly-appointed U.S. ambassador to Yerevan Kristina A. Kvien, has raised the importance of freeing Armenian prisoners of war still being held captive by Azerbaijan.

The two met on Tuesday, February 28, with His Holiness addressing the security issues facing Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh), the expansionist ambitions of Azerbaijan and its occupation of sovereign territories of Armenia,

The Catholicos expressed hope that the United States will take effective steps to curb Azerbaijan's similar policies and protect the right of Artsakh Armenians to self-determination.

Karekin II and Kvien also discussed the problems of preservation of the religious and cultural heritage of Artsakh in territories currently under the control of Azerbaijan.

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.

During the recent military 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.