A senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed that stance at the weekend as he took Baku-based foreign diplomats as well as the European Union’s special envoy to the South Caucasus on a tour of Karabakh. The official, Hikmet Hajiyev, showed them around the region almost three years after an Azerbaijani offensive that displaced its entire ethnic Armenian population. The offensive was condemned by the EU.
As the diplomats visited the 13th century Gandzasar Monastery, Hajiyev repeated Baku’s claim that it had been built not by an Armenian prince but a nobleman of Caucasian Albania, an ancient kingdom that covered much of modern-day Azerbaijan’s territory. He also mocked Armenian arguments to the contrary by showing mockups of old Armenian manuscripts kept there.
“Only one page [is illustrated] … the others are blank. And this is the Christian [Armenian] heritage that you can see,” he said, prompting laughter from the diplomats.
The scene caused outrage in Armenia, with local opposition and public figures as well as Karabakh Armenian leaders based in Yerevan accusing Azerbaijan of continuing to eliminate traces of centuries-long Armenian presence in Karabakh. Some of them also hit out at EU envoy Magdalena Grono, saying that she effectively acquiesced in that effort. Grono praised her trip to Karabakh in a post on X late on Sunday.
“Deeply diverging views and narratives persist, for instance on origins of some sites and would need to be addressed between Azerbaijan and Armenia to also overcome this aspect of past conflict as part of their broader reconciliation efforts,” she wrote.
Anna Grigorian, a leading member of the opposition Hayastan alliance, challenged Armenia’s leadership to react to Hajiyev’s remarks during a session of the Armenian parliament on Monday.
“Do you intend to state the position that Gandzasar is Armenian?” she asked the parliament’s pro-government speaker Ruben Rubinian.
Rubinian replied that while Hajiyev’s claims are “baseless” and “not useful,” the Armenian-Azerbaijani peace process should be treated with “care.” Neither Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s office nor the Armenian Foreign Ministry commented on the issue as of Monday afternoon.
Nagorno-Karabakh -- Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (C) leaves the newly built Holy Mother of God Cathedral in Stepanakert, May 9, 2019.
Earlier this year, Pashinian pointedly declined to condemn the destruction of Karabakh’s largest Armenian church, which was confirmed by satellite images obtained by RFE/RL. Baku subsequently defended the demolition, calling the Holy Mother of God Cathedral of Stepanakert a symbol of “Armenian occupation” of Karabakh.
Several Karabakh Armenian churches have also reportedly been destroyed since the 2020 Armenian-Azerbaijan war. In 2022, Azerbaijani government announced plans to erase Armenian inscriptions from Karabakh’s Christian worship sites, describing them as “fake.” Such medieval inscriptions adorned the Gandzasar Monastery as well.
According to Lernik Hovannisian, a former Karabakh culture minister, manuscripts and other religious books kept at the monastery were taken to Armenia for safety reasons during the 2020 war.
“Hajiyev's presentation is yet another manipulation,” Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “As for the diplomats laughing at it, they knew perfectly well what had happened. They just needed to believe [in what Hajiyev said.]”
Gandzasar’s Armenian-language manuscripts are now kept at Yerevan’s Matenadaran museum. The oldest of them dates back to the year 909.
“The Matenadaran is prepared to show them to any diplomat or ambassador who harbors even the slightest doubt about their authenticity,” the museum director, Ara Khzmalian, said on Monday.