Church of the Holy Savior of Shushi, defaced and desecrated

The website monumentwatch.org, which monitors Artsakh's cultural heritage, writes: "From October 7, 2024, videos of the "restored" new look of the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Church in Shushi were distributed in the Azerbaijani media and social networks, which document that the dome of the 19th century church has been altered. is: The Armenian church has become a different structure due to unauthorized construction intervention and destruction, according to them, a Russian church. It should be noted that the inscription placed on the upper part of the southern porch of the church stated that the temple was built with the donations of the parishioners of the city of Shushi. the construction started in 1868 and ended in 1887. Exactly 4 years ago, during the 44-day state war, on October 8, the Holy Savior Ghazanchetsots Church in Shushi was deliberately targeted twice, violating the Hague and Geneva principles of not targeting cultural values ​​in the event of armed conflicts. Naturally, this attack had the goal of transforming the church itself in the future under the guise of false restorations. And in fact, exactly 4 years after the attack, Azerbaijan presented the results of another act of desecration and transformation of the church. After the war, Azerbaijan announced that the church would be restored to its "historical appearance". After that, the Azerbaijani side destroyed the cross window on one of the double facades and the sculpture above it. The sculpture on the west facade presented the theme "Christ Crucified" with a corresponding inscription, which was also cleaned. From the very beginning of the construction works, it was clear that it aims to destroy the details, inscriptions and other elements representing the cultural importance of the temple. Our reaction With the illegal restorations of the Church of the Holy Savior in Shushi, Azerbaijan violates the principle of authenticity of the Nara document adopted by UNESCO in 1994. According to Nara in 1994 of the document "The concept of preservation implies a set of processes aimed at understanding the cultural heritage, realizing its history and significance, popularizing the heritage, restoring and strengthening it. In this case, people's ability to understand heritage depends, among other things, on reliable and truthful knowledge about heritage, the knowledge and correct understanding of which information sources is a necessary prerequisite for assessing all aspects of authenticity and reliability. Therefore, in order to understand the type, characteristics, significance and history of cultural heritage, information and reliable facts about it are necessary. According to this, the perception of authenticity acquires a fundamental role in all processes related to the preservation of cultural heritage. As for heritage appearing in conflicts, Nara's document highlights the issue of recognizing the legitimacy of cultural values. In Resolution 2057 adopted by the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on May 22, the Parliamentary Assembly expresses its deep concern that the deliberate destruction of culture, identity and the "other" has become a key component of modern conflicts. The European Parliament urges the states to preserve the authenticity of the heritage in urban construction works and to respect all layers of history in the process of restoration and reconstruction, preserving the naturalness and true nature of the heritage. 2022. On March 10, the resolution "On the destruction of cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh" (N 2582) adopted by the overwhelming majority of votes at the plenary session of the European Parliament called on Azerbaijan to exclude any interference in the objects of Armenian heritage, to preserve the principles of the authenticity of the heritage, and to carry out the restorations in accordance with this principle.