Translated material
Exclusive photos: two Christian churches demolished in Karabakh
In Karabakh's largest city, Khankendi (formerly Stepanakert), Azerbaijani authorities demolished two Christian churches, including the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Virgin Mary. Radio Liberty was able to confirm this using high-resolution satellite images taken on April 26 and previously unpublished.
Reports that the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Virgin Mary in Khankendi was destroyed appeared in the Armenian media in mid-April. On April 22, Radio Liberty was able to confirm this using low-resolution satellite imagery, but until now, no clear, up-to-date images of the site after the demolition were available. New photographs show that the parish house was demolished along with the cathedral.
Construction of the cathedral in Khankendi, a city known to Armenians as Stepanakert, began in 2006 and was consecrated in 2019.
In addition to serving as the city's main place of worship, its basement was converted into a bomb shelter during conflicts with Azerbaijani forces in the 2020s.
Images obtained by Radio Liberty confirm that, along with the Cathedral of St. St. James Church of the Virgin Mary in Khankendi was demolished.
Construction of St. James Church was completed in 2007 and funded by Armenian-American philanthropist Nerses Yeprimyan in memory of his deceased son.
The Armenian Apostolic Church on April 23 accused Azerbaijan of “deliberately attacking Armenian Christian shrines in order to erase the Armenian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
On April 22, Elnara Akimova , a member of the Azerbaijani parliament, told Radio Liberty's Azerbaijani service that allegations of church destruction were a "provocation of revanchist forces" aimed at damaging the image of Baku.
Akimova also said that her country “preserves religious and historical monuments on its territories within the framework of state policy” and never “had the intention of destroying any religious heritage.”
On April 24, Radio Liberty called the hotel, located a few meters from the Cathedral of St. Virgin Mary. At first, the hotel employee who answered the phone said that he had no information about the condition of the church, and then said that “everything around the hotel is in place” and claimed that the cathedral still existed - although even then low-resolution satellite images indicated otherwise.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
As follows from an Instagram post found by Radio Liberty, at the beginning of February 2026, the Cathedral of St. The Virgin Mary in Khankendi was already surrounded by a fence. Archived satellite images show it was demolished in early April.
The non-governmental organization Caucasus Heritage Watch, in turn, has repeatedly accused the Armenian authorities of Nagorno-Karabakh of neglecting Azerbaijani cultural and historical heritage sites, although the demolition of mosques or other religious sites was not reported.
More than one hundred thousand ethnic Armenians fled Karabakh and surrounding areas amid a series of military operations launched by Baku, which ended with Azerbaijan fully regaining control of the region in September 2023.
The military campaign followed decades of de facto control by ethnic Armenians over the area after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.
Reports of the destruction of yet more Christian sites in Nagorno-Karabakh have sparked controversy ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections in Armenia, with critics accusing Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of failing to properly respond to the situation.
Pashinyan told reporters that his government was working to obtain full information on the issue, but called for "caution" in such cases.
“I don’t think that, given our previous experience, we will bring this to the level of international discussions at the state level,” he said.
Exclusive photos: two Christian churches demolished in Karabakh
