(Kath).
The Armenian Catholicos Karekin II calls for peace negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which also deserve the name, as well as the protection of Armenian Christian cultural assets in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh). The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church recently expressed these demands to Innsbruck Bishop Hermann Glettler, whom he received at the church’s headquarters in Edschmiadzin near Yerevan. The Austrian delegation also included journalists.
In an interview with “Kathpress” and other media, the Catholicos criticized the “barbaric acts” of Azerbaijan, which wanted to completely erase the history and existence of the Armenian people and Christianity in Nagorno-Karabakh. Churches are being destroyed more and more often and cemeteries are being razed to the ground.
The fate of more than 4,000 unprotected cultural monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh is currently uncertain, including around 300 churches and monasteries, but also many cemeteries.
On September 19, 2023, Azerbaijan attacked Nagorno-Karabakh with superior military means. After just one day the war was decided. The attack was preceded by a total blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijan that lasted around nine months. More than 100,000 Armenians had to leave their homes overnight in September 2023. At the end of 2023, Artsakh will officially cease to exist. After the Karabakh War of 2020, up to 30,000 Karabakh Armenians had permanently fled to Armenia, so that the small country has taken in and supplied or is still trying to provide and integrate more than 130,000 displaced people.