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Leaders of Azerbaijan’s religious communities participate in prayer in Shuhi’s Green Church presented as Russian Orthodox
POLITICS
12.07.2021 | 18:35
Ambassadors of 46 countries accredited in Azerbaijan and representatives of international organizations, including the World Health Organization and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), joint with top Muslim leaders to visit the occupied territories of Artsakh, in particular Shushi Varanda.
The group visited St. Hovhannes the Baptist Church in Shushi, also known as Green Church. The leaders of the Christian communities of Azerbaijan took part in a joint prayer in the Armenian Church. The liturgy was attended by the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Azerbaijan Vladimir Fekete, the head of the Albanian-Udi Christian community Robert Mobili, the spokesman of the Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Baku Konstantin Pominov. They also donated a Bible to the Armenian Apostolic Church.
The Green Church of Shushi was again presented as a Russian Orthodox Church. This Azerbaijani position is actively supported by the Russian side as well. In particular, Russian State Duma member Alexey Zhuravlyov wrote on his Facebook page in February this year after visiting Azerbaijan, as well as the occupied territories of Artsakh, that Armenians “had occupied the Russian church.” Later, however, Zhuravlyov sent a letter to Archbishop Vigen Haykazyan, the head of the Holy Etchmiatsin Committee for the Preservation of the Artsakh Cultural Heritage, to apologize for presenting the Green Church as a Russian Orthodox Church.
The spokesman of the Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church in Baku and Azerbaijan considers the Green Church a Russian church. Pominov told reporters in Shushi that Shushi had returned to Azerbaijan, “it is free now.”
“A wonderful, beautiful city with ancient architecture and cultural monuments. We just found ourselves in the temple, it is an old monument [the Holy Savior Church of Shushi]. There is evidence that this is an Udi temple, it will be found out in the archives. We will then visit the Orthodox Church [the Green Church), then mosques,” Pominov said.
