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Christianity in Azerbaijan is a minority religion.
Contents |
Denominations
There are eleven Molokan communities. The Molokans are a Christian minority which, much like Protestants in Western Europe, is centered on the Bible and who reject church hierarchy. 3.8% of the population (1998) belong to the Russian Orthodox Church (1998). The Russian Orthodox Church has the Eparchy of Baku and the Caspian region with a seat in Azerbaijan.
There is only one Roman Catholic congregation. A Roman Catholic church in Baku has opened in 2007.
The Albanian-Udi church is a minority of 6000 persons in Azerbaijan.
There is a German Lutheran community. There likely are less than 7,000 Protestants. There is also a Georgian Orthodox community and churches.
The Armenian Apostolic Church currently has no community outside Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The Armenian churches in Azerbaijan remain closed, because of the large outmigration of Armenians and fear of Azeri attacks.[1] During the Nagorno-Karabakh War, despite the constitutional guarantees against religious discrimination, numerous acts of vandalism against the Armenian Apostolic Church have been reported throughout Azerbaijan.[2] At the height of atrocities against the Armenian minorities in Baku in 1990, the Armenian church in Baku was set on fire[3], but was restored in 2004 and is not used anymore. The Armenian churches in Baku include the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory Illuminator (Sourb Grigor Lousavoritch in Armenian) and the Old Armenian Church (Baku Fortress).
Khachkar destruction
During the campaign beginning in 1998 and ending in December 2005 the cemetery of medieval Armenian khachkars (cross stones) near the town of Julfa (known as Jugha in Armenian), Nakhchivan was completely demolished. Numerous appeals were filed by both Armenian and international organizations, condemning the Azerbaijani government and calling on it to desist from such activity. In 2006, Azerbaijan barred European Parliament members from investigating the claims, charging them with a "biased and hysterical approach" to the issue and stating that it would only accept a delegation if it visited Armenian-controlled territory as well.[4] In the spring of 2006, a journalist from the Institute for War and Peace Reporting who visited the cemetery wrote that it had "completely vanished."[5] In the same year, the Armenian sources claimed that cemetery was turned into a firing range and the area around it deemed a military zone[6], however the correspondent of IWPR reported that this was not true.[5] American anthropologist and associate professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, Adam T. Smith, called the removal of the khachkars "a shameful episode in humanity's relation to its past, a deplorable act on the part of the government of Azerbaijan which requires both explanation and repair."[7] Smith and other scholars, as well as several United States Senators, signed a letter to UNESCO and other organizations condemning Azerbaijan's government.[8]
See also
- Church of Caucasian Albania
- Roman Catholicism in Azerbaijan
- Molokan
- Protestantism by country
- Khachkar destruction in Nakhchivan
Notes
- ^ United States Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1992 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, February 1993), p. 708
- ^ Memorandum from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to John D. Evans, Resource Information Center, 13 June 1993, p. 4.
- ^ Implementation of the Helsinki Accords: Human Rights and Democratization in the Newly Independent States of the former Soviet Union" (Washington, DC: U.S. Congress, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, January 1993), p. 116
- ^ Castle, Stephen. "Azerbaijan 'flattened' sacred Armenian site." The Independent. April 16, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2007.
- ^ a b IWPR staff in Nakhchivan, Baku and Yerevan (April 19, 2006). "Azerbaijan: Famous Medieval Cemetery Vanishes". Institute for War and Peace Reporting. http://www.iwpr.net/index.php?p=crs&s=f&o=261191&apc_state=henpcrs261191.
- ^ Maghakyan, Simon. "Sacred Stones Silenced in Azerbaijan." History Today. Vol. 57, November 2007, pp. 4-5.
- ^ Pickman, Sarah. "Tragedy on the Araxes." Archaeology. June 30, 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2007
- ^ Smith, Adam T. et al. A copy of the letter in PDF format.
Further reading
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