PanARMENIAN.Net - Azerbaijan wants to achieve the withdrawal of the Armenian clergy from Dadivank Monastery and their replacement by the clergy of the Russian Diocese of Baku, Bishop Vrtanes Abrahamyan, Primate of the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, has told NEWS.am.

"I believe this information is completely in line with Azerbaijan's policy pursued today. They do everything to bring what they want to fruition and remove our clergymen from Dadivank. They saw that they could not achieve anything with the visits of the Udis, and [therefore] they resorted to this option," Bishop Vrtans said Tuesday, June 7.

"Besides the fact that they will remove the Armenian clergy, they will also say that there is no need for Russian peacekeepers [in Artsakh] anymore. I am sure that the Russian Orthodox Church will not give way to that move."

The Primate of the Artsakh Diocese added that intensive negotiations are underway to resume the entry of Armenian pilgrims to Dadivank.

Concerns about the preservation of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh are made all the more urgent by the Azerbaijani government’s history of systemically destroying indigenous Armenian heritage—acts of both warfare and historical revisionism. The Azerbaijani government has secretly destroyed a striking number of cultural and religious artifacts in the late 20th century. Within Nakhichevan alone, a historically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani forces destroyed at least 89 medieval churches, 5,840 khachkars (Armenian cross stones) and 22,000 historical tombstones between 1997 and 2006.