Azerbaijan Demolishes Holy Mother of God Church in Stepanakert

Recent satellite images from Caucasus Heritage Watch (CHW) have verified that the Azerbaijani government has destroyed the Holy Mother of God Church in Stepanakert, Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), within the past two months. The Artsakh Tourism and Cultural Development Agency revealed this information on April 21, just three days prior to the 111th commemoration of the Armenian Genocide. CHW experts found corroborating evidence from Sentinel-2 satellite photos taken on March 3 and April 2. Unlike older churches that were demolished following the 2023 forced exodus of over 130,000 Armenians, this church was consecrated in 2019 after a lengthy 12-year construction period and had served as a bomb shelter during the 2020 Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. Scholars have labeled Azerbaijan's actions as cultural genocide. This report comes after Edita Gzoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, resigned at the request of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, following her presentation of a book about Artsakh to U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial. Facing reelection on June 7, Pashinyan has chosen to limit discussions on Karabakh to maintain the peace agreement with Azerbaijan set for 2025. The Armenian Genocide, which resulted in 1.5 million deaths in 1915, is observed on April 24.