The Baku-based Caucasus Muslims Board has urged the Armenian government to prevent similar events, arguing that the ceremony violated Islamic traditions and misrepresented the mosque’s historical heritage.
The controversy was sparked by an event organized on November 9 by the cultural center of the Iranian Embassy in Armenia, during which the complete prose translation into Armenian of Persian poet Ferdowsi’s epic Shahnameh was presented. The mosque’s ceremonial hall was also named after Charents, with plans to install a bust of the poet there.
The ceremonial hall of the Blue Mosque in Yerevan has been named after the prominent Armenian poet Yeghishe Charents
Iranian Vice President Seyed Hamid Pourmohammadi, who was visiting Yerevan, attended the ceremony.
In a statement circulated by Azerbaijan’s APA news agency on Wednesday, the Caucasus Muslims Board said that holding a cultural event in a place of worship belonging to another religion was incompatible with Islamic traditions.
“Civilized nations hold book presentations not in places of worship belonging to another religion, but in their own cultural institutions,” the statement said.
The Azerbaijani religious body also objected to the decision to name the hall after Charents and to the planned installation of his bust. It described the Blue Mosque as part of Azerbaijan’s historical and cultural heritage, arguing that presenting it as Iranian amounted to a “falsification of history.”
“We resolutely condemn this spectacle staged under the guise of a cultural event and demand that the Armenian government prevent such cases,” the statement said, adding that the ceremony also called into question the peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Armenia’s authorities did not immediately comment on the accusations from the Azerbaijani organization.
The Iranian Embassy in Yerevan explained the decision to name the hall after Charents by citing the poet’s particular interest in Iranian culture and literature and his contribution to preserving the mosque during the Soviet times.
Built in 1766 under Hoseyn Ali Khan, the ruler of the Yerevan Khanate, the Blue Mosque was preserved during the Soviet-era reconstruction campaign largely through the efforts of a number of Armenian intellectuals, including Charents (1897-1937).
It subsequently housed a museum before being handed over to the care of the Iranian Embassy after Armenia regained independence. Iran financed its restoration in the 1990s. The mosque now serves both as a place of worship and a cultural center.
The dispute comes amid continuing tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the preservation and historical ownership of cultural and religious monuments in the South Caucasus.
Armenian heritage organizations have repeatedly accused Azerbaijan of destroying or altering Armenian religious and cultural monuments in Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku took full control of in September 2023, prompting the exodus of the entire ethnic Armenian population of the region.
Satellite monitoring by Caucasus Heritage Watch, a U.S.-based research group, has documented the destruction of several Armenian heritage sites since Azerbaijan regained control of the territory, including the Holy Mother of God Cathedral in Stepanakert, which was demolished in 2026.
Citing the need to avoid undermining peace efforts between the two countries, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has previously declined to comment on the destruction of the cathedral and on Azerbaijani efforts to present Armenian churches in Nagorno-Karabakh as belonging to the Caucasian Albanian Christian tradition.
At the same time, he has advocated an approach under which both sides would preserve historical, cultural, and religious sites located on their respective territories.