"Armenian Apostolic Church Replies to Azerbaijan’s Anti-Armenian Conference in Rome" by Carlo Coppola

«Հայ առաքելական եկեղեցին պատասխանել է Հռոմում Ադրբեջանի հակահայկական համաժողովին»:  Կառլո Կոպպոլայի հոդված. 

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin – The Department of Interchurch Relations of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has announced its intention to take formal action in response to the controversial conference held on April 10 at the Pontifical Gregorian University. The event, sponsored by the Embassy of Azerbaijan to the Holy See and several Azerbaijani organizations, was titled “Christianity in Azerbaijan. History and Modern Times” and was attended by international representatives.

During the meeting, Azerbaijan’s propaganda strategy aimed at denying the Armenian historical and cultural heritage, particularly regarding Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), was again implemented. A narrative constructed with the intent, according to Etchmiadzin, to justify future cultural and historical appropriations by Azerbaijan.

All this is happening while the international community is still slow to condemn the genocidal actions committed by Azerbaijan, including the forced deportation of Armenians from Artsakh, the illegal detention of Armenian prisoners of war in Baku, and the systematic destruction of Armenian cultural and religious heritage.

"It is deplorable," reads a note from Echmiadzin, "that such an anti-scientific event was hosted within a prestigious Catholic university such as the Gregorian."

The Armenian Apostolic Church has declared that it will take the necessary steps in the context of intra-ecclesial dialogue, denouncing the seriousness of the statements made during the conference and the dangerous distortion of historical truth.

During the event, an "Azeri political scientist" openly accused Armenia of hostility towards Christianity, even recalling the controversial figure of Garegin Nzhdeh, associated with Armenian neo-paganism and collaboration with Nazi Germany. A thesis defined as "grotesque" by circles close to the Armenian community, according to which Azerbaijan continues to project its historical responsibilities onto Armenia.

The same person also stated that Armenia destroyed "Caucasian Albanian" religious monuments in Karabakh to claim them as its own. A version of the facts completely reversed compared to international documentation, which instead attests to the systematic destruction by Azerbaijan of the Armenian heritage in the region. This statement is ridiculous like everything else and is evidence that Caucasian Albania has a historical value absolutely different from that mythologized by the Azeris is clear to all those who have even leafed through a history book.

In an even more paradoxical passage, the so-called "political scientist" painted Armenia as a mono-ethnic and "anti-Christian" state, in contrast to the alleged multicultural tolerance of neighboring countries. A statement denied not only by the Armenian social reality, which is home to ethnic and religious minorities protected by law, but also by the past statements of Azerbaijani leaders.

At the end of his speech, he even attributed to the first Armenian president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, phrases that – according to Armenian sources – should instead be attributed to the same Azerbaijani president Heydar Aliyev, in a classic game of mirrors of propaganda rhetoric.

Holy Etchmiadzin, the spiritual and historical center of Christian Armenia, reiterates its commitment to the truth, the protection of cultural heritage and the condemnation of any form of denial or historical manipulation.