On February 3, Azerbaijan’s minister of culture Anar Karimov told journalists that a working group of specialists has been set up to “remove fictitious traces written by Armenians on Albanian religious temples”.
The decision marks the first openly official attempt by the Azerbaijani government to erase Armenian traces from churches that it has declared to be originally Albanian and altered by Armenians later.
Albania is a kingdom once situated in the territory of today’s Azerbaijan. Azerbaijani historians, as well as officials including President Ilham Aliyev, have held a theory that Armenians, who arrived in Azerbaijan only in the 19th century thanks to Russia-enforced large immigration, erased Albanian inscriptions and architectural features at churches once built by Albanians and instead put Armenian signs onto them.
Though even in the post-war period the theory was embraced by the government, there was no official announcement as to if, and what, they would do with regard to Armenian traces at churches.
Besides, on December 7, 2021, the International Court of Justice held the ruling that Azerbaijan to “take all necessary measures to prevent and punish acts of vandalism and desecration affecting Armenian cultural heritage, including but not limited to churches and other places of worship, monuments, landmarks, cemeteries and artifacts.”
Karimov also said that the group will consists of “both local and international experts”, but did not reveal any specifics on the plan.
