Azeri church sparks political row

Armenians say the church is part of their heritage

BBC
10 March 05

The restoration of a centuries-old Christian church in predominantly
Muslim Azerbaijan is hanging in the balance amid a row over wall
inscriptions.

The local Udi people, a Christian community, removed lettering they
say was put there by Armenian Christians.

The white-stone building in the northern mountain village of Nij
is undergoing renovation with funding from a Norwegian charity, the
Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise, but the organisation is unhappy
about the alterations.

The Udis say they erased the inscriptions over the entrance to the
church and next to the altar to right a historic wrong.

Armenians, they contend, put the lettering there long after the church
was built so they could lay claim to it.

‘Fake inscriptions’

“If those fake inscriptions are not erased, the renovation will lose
its importance,” the head of the Udi community told Azerbaijan’s
ANS TV.

The Udis, who number around 8,000, are keen to distance themselves
from Azerbaijan’s arch-foe, Armenia.

I regret that they have been erased. This was a chance for Azerbaijan
to set an example to the whole world

Norway’s ambassador Steinar Gil

“We live in Azerbaijan, and when people came into the church and saw
Armenian letters, they automatically associated us with Armenians,”
one of the village elders told the AFP news agency.

The Udis have struggled to separate their heritage from that of their
fellow Christian Armenians, who fought a war with Azerbaijan over
the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in 1988-1994.

The Armenians argue that churches with this type of inscription are
an indication of their long roots in the region.

‘Vandalism’

The Norwegians view the erasing of the inscriptions as “tantamount
to vandalism”, the Azeri newspaper 525 Qazet reported.

The Norwegian ambassador to Azerbaijan, Steinar Gil, said politics
should not play a role.

“Any historical monument should be protected. One should take care
of historical monuments despite political relations,” he said.

“I visited that village in November last year and saw the Armenian
inscriptions. I regret that they have been erased… This was a chance
for Azerbaijan to set an example to the whole world.”

And the head of the Norwegian Humanitarian Office in Azerbaijan,
Alf Henry Rasmussen, told the BBC that the organisation was now
reconsidering the whole restoration project.