Albanian temples in previously occupied Azerbaijani lands transformed into Armenian Gregorian churches

By Trend

Armenia has carried out a specific policy against Azerbaijan’s historical, religious and cultural monuments, Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijani State Committee for the Work with Religious Organizations Gunduz Ismayilov said, Trend reports on Jan. 14.

“The essence of this policy was to destroy the traces of our culture in the previously occupied territories of Azerbaijan,” Ismayilov said.

"For this purpose, they worked in three directions,” the deputy chairman said. “First, they destroyed Islamic temples, mosques, and shrines. Then they passed off Islamic temples as samples of the culture of other people, that is, alienated them. The third direction is the activity in relation to Albanian churches, where the essence of their policy was to misappropriate."

Ismayilov specified that almost all of 128 Albanian temples located in the previously occupied territories, including the Khudaveng temple, the Agaoglan temple in Lachin, the Ganjasar temple in Agdere, and the Amasar church in Khojavend district, were transformed into Armenian Gregorian churches.