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The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin has condemned the anti-Armenian event organized by Azerbaijan in Rome on April 10, expressing regret that such an anti-scientific event was allowed to take place within the premises of a Catholic higher educational institution.
“On April 10, at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, an event entitled ‘Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity’ was held at the initiative of the Embassy of Azerbaijan to the Holy See and several Azerbaijani organizations, with the participation of representatives from various countries.
During the event, staged by the Azerbaijani propaganda machine, attempts were made to deny the Armenian origin of the historical and cultural heritage of Armenia and Artsakh, and to distort historical facts with the malicious intention of appropriating this heritage in the future.
This event comes amidst the international community's failure to properly assess the genocidal actions carried out by Azerbaijan, the violation of the fundamental rights of all Armenians forcibly displaced from Artsakh, the illegal and degrading treatment of Armenian prisoners of war held in Baku, the appropriation of Artsakh's spiritual and cultural heritage, and the complete erasure of Armenian traces," reads the statement issued by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.
In its statement, the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin noted that it will take the necessary steps within the framework of inter-church communication.
Earlier, the team of the Monitoring the Cultural Heritage of Artsakh program had raised the alarm about the international conference ‘Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity’ being held at the Pontifical Gregorian University of the Holy See of the Vatican, noting that no Armenian studies organization had been informed about the conference until the last minute.
“Dozens of specialists from various countries (Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Russia, Poland, Italy, Georgia, Germany, France, Canada, the USA, Lithuania) were assembled and recruited to exclude Armenian history and Armenian culture.
Monuments that are unmistakably Armenian and bear hundreds of Armenian inscriptions—such as Amaras, Gandzasar, Dadivank, and others—are being presented as Albanian.
It is also incomprehensible to us that some well-known researchers in the field chose to participate, despite noticing that no Armenian scholars were present and not a single word was said about Armenians,” reads the statement released by the Artsakh Cultural Heritage Monitoring project team.
