Magdalena Grono, the EU’s special representative for the South Caucasus, was among foreign diplomats who traveled to Karabakh at the weekend on a promotional tour led by a senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. The official, Hikmet Hajiyev, showed them around the territory and its 13th century Gandzasar Monastery in particular three years after an Azerbaijani military offensive that restored Azerbaijan’s control over Karabakh and forced its entire ethnic Armenian population to flee to Armenia.
Hajiyev repeated Baku’s claims that Gandzasar 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 showed mockups of old Armenian manuscripts kept there to deride Armenian arguments to the contrary, prompting laughter from many of the visiting diplomats.
The scene sparked an uproar from Armenian opposition and public figures as well as exiled Karabakh Armenian activists. Some of them were particularly enraged by Grono’s presence, accusing her of thereby helping Baku whitewash ethnic cleansing and erase traces of centuries-old Armenian presence in Karabakh.
“I certainly do not contest past Armenian presence and rich footprint in former conflict-affected areas in Karabakh,” Grono told the Armenpress news agency in Yerevan on Monday. “I could see it firsthand for the first time during the visit to Kalbajar and Aghdara (Martakert) districts last week.”
“I did hear perspectives from both sides, and I know that both sides feel very strongly about them,” she said. “And I was very happy to also have the opportunity during my visit over the weekend to witness the heritage that is important that is indeed in Karabakh.”
Grono spoke after Armenia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian took her on a tour of Yerevan’s Matenadaran museum-institute of ancient Armenian manuscripts. Its repository holds Gandzasar’s Armenian-language medieval manuscripts whose replicas were mockingly demonstrated by Hajiyev. The Matenadaran director, Ara Khzmalian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service ahead of Grono’s visit that he is ready to show those originals to “any diplomat or ambassador who harbors even the slightest doubt about their authenticity.”
According to an Armenian Foreign Ministry statement on the visit, the EU official familiarized herself with “rich collection of Armenian manuscripts and their history as well as the traditions of preserving, processing, and creating facsimiles of ancient manuscripts for museum display.”
Grono also held a separate meeting with Kostanian at the museum’s premises. The ministry statement said they discussed her recent activities and their “their effectiveness in the context of institutionalizing the peace established between Armenia and Azerbaijan.” It did not elaborate.
Ignoring opposition complaints and demands, the Armenian government did not officially react to Hajiyev’s claims as of Monday evening. The government essentially stopped accusing Baku of systematically desecrating or destroying Armenian monuments in Karabakh after Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian first recognized Azerbaijani sovereignty over the territory during an EU summit in 2022. Pashinian’s critics claim that the EU-backed move facilitated the subsequent Azerbaijani offensive. The premier and his political allies deny this.