Misplaced Pages

#223776

80-660: Holy Savior Cathedral ( Armenian : Սուրբ Ամենափրկիչ մայր տաճար , Surb Amenap′rkich mayr tachar ), commonly referred to as Ghazanchetsots ( Armenian : Ղազանչեցոց ), is an Armenian Apostolic cathedral in Shusha in Azerbaijan . It is the cathedra of the Diocese of Artsakh of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Standing 35 metres (115 ft) high, Ghazanchetsots is one of the largest Armenian churches in

160-408: A base for the shelling of Stepanakert , the largest city of Karabakh, with Grad launchers for several months. Armenian volunteers, including noted activist Igor Muradyan , carried the wooden boxes of artillery and rocket shells out of the church immediately after the capture of the city . The flag of Armenia was raised on top of the damaged dome by Armenian troops. Melik-Shahnazaryan wrote that by

240-552: A century — to the year 1915," referring to the Armenian genocide . Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry officially denied it was behind the attack, while its state news agency claimed the missiles came from the Armenian side. Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev later stated: "We need to investigate this issue... We have doubts that could have been done by Armenians in order to blame us. If it was done by Azerbaijani military units, that

320-520: A consistent Proto-Indo-European pattern distinct from Iranian, and that the inflectional morphology was different from that of Iranian languages. The hypothesis that Greek is Armenian's closest living relative originates with Holger Pedersen (1924), who noted that the number of Greek-Armenian lexical cognates is greater than that of agreements between Armenian and any other Indo-European language. Antoine Meillet (1925, 1927) further investigated morphological and phonological agreement and postulated that

400-470: A decades-long decline well into the Soviet period. During the first Nagorno-Karabakh War Azerbaijan used the cathedral as an armoury to store hundreds of missiles. The cathedral was extensively restored in the aftermath of the first war and reconsecrated in 1998. During the 2020 war , it was damaged by Azerbaijani attacks . In Azerbaijan, the cathedral is called "Gazanchy" ( Azerbaijani : Qazançı ) and

480-716: A deliberate attempt to attack the Armenian heritage in Karabakh." Restoration of the cathedral began soon after its capture by Armenian forces. As of 1997 it was reportedly the only building being restored in Shushi. Restoration works were conducted by Volodya Babayan and primarily funded by Andreas Roubian, an Armenian evangelical benefactor from New Jersey, who provided $ 110,000. Tens of thousands of dollars came from various Armenian diaspora communities and wealthy individuals. Cleanup and furnishing were completed in May 1998. The cathedral

560-411: A height of 35 m (115 ft), it is one of the largest Armenian churches. Its dome, with a metal conical roof , is 17 m (56 ft) tall. Architect Artak Ghulyan criticized the proportions of the roof, restored by Volodya Babayan, as being unfaithful (too tall) to the original proportions. The church has three identical entrances from the west, south and north. There are ornamental reliefs on

640-468: A loan from Armenian (compare to Armenian եւ yev , ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁epi ). Other loans from Armenian into Urartian includes personal names, toponyms, and names of deities. Loan words from Iranian languages , along with the other ancient accounts such as that of Xenophon above, initially led some linguists to erroneously classify Armenian as an Iranian language. Scholars such as Paul de Lagarde and F. Müller believed that

720-527: A media forum in Shusha in July 2023, Aliyev stated: "We do not touch the historical heritage of the Armenian people. There is even an Armenian church here in Shusha. Anyone can go and have a look, not a single stone has been touched there. On the contrary, it is protected." The cathedral's church is a domed basilica with four apsides . It is 34.7 m (114 ft) long and 23 m (75 ft) wide. Standing at

800-425: A network of schools where modern Armenian was taught, dramatically increased the rate of literacy (in spite of the obstacles by the colonial administrators), even in remote rural areas. The emergence of literary works entirely written in the modern versions increasingly legitimized the language's existence. By the turn of the 20th century both varieties of the one modern Armenian language prevailed over Grabar and opened

880-486: A popular pilgrimage site for Armenians from Armenia and the diaspora. Catholicos Karekin II called the cathedral a symbol of the Armenian liberation movement of Artsakh during a mass at the cathedral in 2016. Furthermore, it is seen as a remnant of the 19th and early 20th century religious-cultural renaissance of the city. Numerous manuscripts used to be kept at the cathedral, the earliest dated 1612. The Right Arm of Grigoris ,

SECTION 10

#1732772593224

960-494: A prayer for peace and for the safety of Nagorno-Karabakh. It came days after clashes between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces , which were the deadliest since the ceasefire of 1994, until the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. On 6 April 2017, Serj Tankian , the lead singer of the rock band System of a Down performed the Christian liturgical prayer " Lord, have mercy " ( Armenian : Տէր, ողորմեա , Ter voghormia ), in Armenian, at

1040-552: Is an independent branch of the Indo-European languages . It is of interest to linguists for its distinctive phonological changes within that family. Armenian exhibits more satemization than centumization , although it is not classified as belonging to either of these subgroups. Some linguists tentatively conclude that Armenian, Greek (and Phrygian ), Albanian and Indo-Iranian were dialectally close to each other; within this hypothetical dialect group, Proto-Armenian

1120-561: Is clearly the dialect to be most closely related to Armenian. Eric P. Hamp (1976, 91) supports the Graeco-Armenian thesis and even anticipates a time "when we should speak of Helleno-Armenian" (meaning the postulate of a Graeco-Armenian proto-language). Armenian shares the augment and a negator derived from the set phrase in the Proto-Indo-European language * ne h₂oyu kʷid ("never anything" or "always nothing"),

1200-474: Is derived from Proto-Indo-European *h₂r̥ǵipyós , with cognates in Sanskrit (ऋजिप्य, ṛjipyá ), Avestan ( ərəzifiia ), and Greek (αἰγίπιος, aigípios ). Hrach Martirosyan and Armen Petrosyan propose additional borrowed words of Armenian origin loaned into Urartian and vice versa, including grammatical words and parts of speech, such as Urartian eue ("and"), attested in the earliest Urartian texts and likely

1280-415: Is not considered conclusive evidence of a period of common isolated development. There are words used in Armenian that are generally believed to have been borrowed from Anatolian languages, particularly from Luwian , although some researchers have identified possible Hittite loanwords as well. One notable loanword from Anatolian is Armenian xalam , "skull", cognate to Hittite ḫalanta , "head". In 1985,

1360-507: Is the working language. Armenian (without reference to a specific variety) is officially recognized as a minority language in Cyprus , Hungary , Iraq , Poland , Romania , and Ukraine . It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . 1988 violence in Shusha and Stepanakert The 1988 violence in Shusha and Stepanakert

1440-466: The Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia (11–14th centuries) resulted in the addition of two more characters to the alphabet (" օ " and " ֆ "), bringing the total number to 38. The Book of Lamentations by Gregory of Narek (951–1003) is an example of the development of a literature and writing style of Old Armenian by the 10th century. In addition to elevating the literary style and vocabulary of

1520-508: The Armenian genocide , mostly in the diaspora ). The differences between them are considerable but they are mutually intelligible after significant exposure. Some subdialects such as Homshetsi are not mutually intelligible with other varieties. Although Armenians were known to history much earlier (for example, they were mentioned in the 6th-century BC Behistun Inscription and in Xenophon 's 4th century BC history, The Anabasis ),

1600-641: The Greek language , the Armenian language, and the Indo-Iranian languages . Graeco-Aryan unity would have become divided into Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian by the mid-3rd millennium BC. Conceivably, Proto-Armenian would have been located between Proto-Greek and Proto-Indo-Iranian, consistent with the fact that Armenian shares certain features only with Indo-Iranian (the satem change) but others only with Greek ( s > h ). Graeco-Aryan has comparatively wide support among Indo-Europeanists who believe

1680-643: The Indo-European homeland to be located in the Armenian Highlands , the " Armenian hypothesis ". Early and strong evidence was given by Euler's 1979 examination on shared features in Greek and Sanskrit nominal flection. Used in tandem with the Graeco-Armenian hypothesis, the Armenian language would also be included under the label Aryano-Greco-Armenic , splitting into Proto-Greek/Phrygian and "Armeno-Aryan" (ancestor of Armenian and Indo-Iranian ). Classical Armenian (Arm: grabar ), attested from

SECTION 20

#1732772593224

1760-542: The Mekhitarists . The first Armenian periodical, Azdarar , was published in grabar in 1794. The classical form borrowed numerous words from Middle Iranian languages , primarily Parthian , and contains smaller inventories of loanwords from Greek, Syriac, Aramaic, Arabic, Mongol, Persian, and indigenous languages such as Urartian . An effort to modernize the language in Bagratid Armenia and

1840-629: The Shusha massacre in 1920, the Armenian population of the city was mostly killed or expelled, and the city reduced to a town with a dominant Azerbaijani population. Stepanakert, located in the Karabakh Plateau , was the capital of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast (NKAO), with an Armenian majority, and an Azerbaijani minority. According to the 1979 Soviet census , the city had a population of 38,980 people, mostly of Armenians, who constituted 87% of

1920-568: The 19th century, following the conquest of the Caucasus by the Russian Empire , Shusha was one of the largest cities in the region . The journalist Thomas de Waal notes that it was larger and more prosperous than either Baku or Yerevan , the current capitals of Azerbaijan and Armenia, respectively. Alongside Tiflis , the city was a major center for Armenian cultural activity in the region. According to Russian imperial sources, in 1886

2000-408: The 5th century to the 19th century as the literary standard (up to the 11th century also as a spoken language with different varieties), was partially superseded by Middle Armenian , attested from the 12th century to the 18th century. Specialized literature prefers "Old Armenian" for grabar as a whole, and designates as "Classical" the language used in the 5th century literature, "Post-Classical" from

2080-481: The Armenian language by adding well above a thousand new words, through his other hymns and poems Gregory paved the way for his successors to include secular themes and vernacular language in their writings. The thematic shift from mainly religious texts to writings with secular outlooks further enhanced and enriched the vocabulary. "A Word of Wisdom", a poem by Hovhannes Sargavak devoted to a starling, legitimizes poetry devoted to nature, love, or female beauty. Gradually,

2160-489: The Armenian population of Shusha was massacred or expelled in March 1920. The cathedral was damaged and gradually declined. After the region came under Soviet control, due to state atheist policies, it was eventually closed down in 1930 and was turned into a granary in the 1940s. Its dome and part of the walls surrounding it were destroyed in the 1950s. It was then looted and its stones were used to build several upscale houses in

2240-466: The Azerbaijani part of the city. By the 1970s the cathedral "looked like it [had] survived heavy shelling." After public pressure, Soviet and Azerbaijani authorities granted permission for the launch of a restoration project of the cathedral in the 1980s. The restoration began in 1981 and continued until 1988 and was supervised by Volodya Babayan. By 1987 only two of the four stone statues of angels on

2320-679: The Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was seriously damaged by fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh" and called for the safeguarding of places of worship and religious sites, particularly during the violent conflict. US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback stated on Twitter: "I am deeply saddened by the images of damage to the Holy Savior Cathedral (St. Ghazanchetsots). Important religious and cultural sites must be protected." The attack

2400-467: The Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian origins for these words and instead suggest native Armenian etymologies, leaving the possibility that these words may have been loaned into Hurro-Urartian and Caucasian languages from Armenian, and not vice versa. A notable example is arciv , meaning "eagle", believed to have been the origin of Urartian Arṣibi and Northeast Caucasian arzu . This word

2480-502: The Khandamiriants family originated. Furthermore, the quarter where the church is located was also known by that name (Ղազանչեցոց թաղ, Ghazanchetsots t′agh ) as it was populated by the descendants of migrants from Ghazanchi. The church was designed by Simon Ter-Hakobian(ts). The church was consecrated on 20 September 1888 according to an inscription on the upper part of the southern portal . The inscription reads: The majority of

Ghazanchetsots Cathedral - Misplaced Pages Continue

2560-669: The Russian Empire), removed almost all of their Turkish lexical influences in the 20th century, primarily following the Armenian genocide . In addition to Armenia and Turkey, where it is indigenous , Armenian is spoken among the diaspora . According to Ethnologue , globally there are 1.6 million Western Armenian speakers and 3.7 million Eastern Armenian speakers, totalling 5.3 million Armenian speakers. In Georgia, Armenian speakers are concentrated in Ninotsminda and Akhalkalaki districts where they represent over 90% of

2640-459: The Russian and Ottoman empires led to creation of two separate and different environments under which Armenians lived. Halfway through the 19th century, two important concentrations of Armenian communities were further consolidated. Because of persecutions or the search for better economic opportunities, many Armenians living under Ottoman rule gradually moved to Istanbul , whereas Tbilisi became

2720-780: The Soviet linguist Igor M. Diakonoff noted the presence in Classical Armenian of what he calls a "Caucasian substratum" identified by earlier scholars, consisting of loans from the Kartvelian and Northeast Caucasian languages . Noting that Hurro-Urartian-speaking peoples inhabited the Armenian homeland in the second millennium BC, Diakonoff identifies in Armenian a Hurro-Urartian substratum of social, cultural, and animal and plant terms such as ałaxin "slave girl" ( ← Hurr. al(l)a(e)ḫḫenne ), cov "sea" ( ← Urart. ṣûǝ "(inland) sea"), ułt "camel" ( ← Hurr. uḷtu ), and xnjor "apple (tree)" ( ← Hurr. ḫinzuri ). Some of

2800-407: The absence of evidence that it was used for military purposes." HRW collected remnants of the weapon used against the church, which "corroborate the use of guided munitions ." An investigation by Hetq concluded that the church was hit with 300 mm rockets, probably that of a TRG-300 Tiger multiple rocket launcher. Between the shelling of the church and the capture of the town by Azerbaijan,

2880-488: The attack and described it as "an outgrowth of extreme religious intolerance." Armenia's first foreign minister Raffi Hovannisian wrote in the New York Post that for Armenians, "an attack like the one on the Holy Savior Cathedral isn’t just a matter of urgent current affairs. No, the swirling dust kicked up by violence against a Christian house of worship can take back even the most modern-minded Armenian more than

2960-431: The authorities have often denied its Armenian heritage, instead vaguely referring to it as "Christian" or falsely labeling it a "Russian Orthodox" edifice. Azerbaijan's announcement of a "renovation", which so far has included the removal of its conical roof, has been met with criticism and concern by different bodies. According to historical records, a small basilica church stood on the present premises as early as 1722. In

3040-527: The bell tower had survived. Shusha's Armenian minority was expelled from the city after the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict began in February 1988. The cathedral was turned into an armory by Azerbaijan. According to Armenian political analyst Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan, the cathedral was set on fire three times between 1988 and 1991 using car tires. Azerbaijanis dismantled the stone statues of angels on

3120-519: The bell tower in 1989. They reportedly sold off its bronze bell, which was later found in a market in Donetsk , Ukraine and was bought by an Armenian officer for three million rubles and returned to Armenia. Prior to the fall of Shushi to the Armenians, Azerbaijani forces stored hundreds of boxes of BM-21 Grad missiles as the cathedral was safe from potential Armenian bombardment. Shusha was used as

3200-402: The cathedral. On 8 October 2020, the cathedral was struck twice by Azerbaijan, which resulted in the collapse of part of the roof. A Russian journalist, Yuri Kotenok was seriously injured by the second strike. Two others were also wounded. Human Rights Watch (HRW) noted that the two attacks "suggest that the church, a civilian object with cultural significance, was an intentional target despite

3280-434: The center of Armenians living under Russian rule. These two cosmopolitan cities very soon became the primary poles of Armenian intellectual and cultural life. The introduction of new literary forms and styles, as well as many new ideas sweeping Europe, reached Armenians living in both regions. This created an ever-growing need to elevate the vernacular, Ashkharhabar, to the dignity of a modern literary language, in contrast to

Ghazanchetsots Cathedral - Misplaced Pages Continue

3360-412: The church continued to attract Armenians. On October 12 cellist Sevak Avanesyan played Krunuk (The Crane) by Komitas inside the partially ruined church. On October 24 a couple from Martuni got married at the church. On November 6, 2020 Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan of Tavush delivered a prayer at the church. Armenia's Foreign Ministry issued an official statement describing it as "another crime of

3440-459: The city had a mixed Armenian (57%) and Tatar (later known as Azerbaijani ; 43%) population of almost 27,000. The oldest section of the current cathedral, the bell tower, was built in 1858, and was financed by the Khandamiriants family. The construction of the church began in 1868 and was completed in 1887. Its name comes from Ghazanchi (present-day Qazançı), a village in Nakhchivan , where

3520-422: The city." On 16 October 2008, a mass wedding , sponsored by Levon Hayrapetyan  [ hy ] , a Russian-based businessman from Karabakh, took place in Nagorno-Karabakh. Around 700 couples got married on that day, 500 of whom married at Ghazanchetsots and 200 at Gandzasar monastery . On 14 April 2016, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and Catholicos of The Holy See of Cilicia Aram I delivered

3600-492: The conical dome of the church can be seen in photographs from over a century ago. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and International Christian Concern expressed concern with the announced renovation. In June 2023 Azerbaijani Ambassador to the Holy See Ilgar Mukhtarov stated that the church, "misappropriated by Armenians is currently regaining its original appearance." At

3680-408: The conical dome of the church had been removed and the church itself surrounded by ostensible scaffolding. A report by Caucasian Knot quoted several Azerbaijani state officials who claimed that the renovation project aimed to restore the "original" appearance of the church, which, according to them, lacked the conical dome until it was added by the Armenians following Shushi's capture in 1992. However,

3760-580: The existence of the two modern versions of the same language was sanctioned even more clearly. The Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic (1920–1990) used Eastern Armenian as its official language, whereas the diaspora created after the Armenian genocide preserved the Western Armenian dialect. The two modern literary dialects, Western (originally associated with writers in the Ottoman Empire) and Eastern (originally associated with writers in

3840-1166: The grandson of Gregory the Illuminator , was also kept at the cathedral. The cathedral is included in the list of cultural and historical monuments of the breakaway Republic of Artsakh and the list of cultural and historical monuments of the Republic of Azerbaijan. In 2001, the Shusha State Historical and Architectural Reserve , which includes Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, was added to the Tentative List of UNESCO World Heritage Sites from Azerbaijan. Armenian language Pontic Steppe Caucasus East Asia Eastern Europe Northern Europe Pontic Steppe Northern/Eastern Steppe Europe South Asia Steppe Europe Caucasus India Indo-Aryans Iranians East Asia Europe East Asia Europe Indo-Aryan Iranian Indo-Aryan Iranian Others European Armenian

3920-425: The hypothetical Mushki language may have been a (now extinct) Armenic language. W. M. Austin (1942) concluded that there was early contact between Armenian and Anatolian languages , based on what he considered common archaisms, such as the lack of a feminine gender and the absence of inherited long vowels. Unlike shared innovations (or synapomorphies ), the common retention of archaisms (or symplesiomorphy )

4000-470: The interests of the population at large were reflected in other literary works as well. Konsdantin Yerzinkatsi and several others took the unusual step of criticizing the ecclesiastic establishment and addressing the social issues of the Armenian homeland. These changes represented the nature of the literary style and syntax, but they did not constitute immense changes to the fundamentals of the grammar or

4080-434: The late 5th to 8th centuries, and "Late Grabar" that of the period covering the 8th to 11th centuries. Later, it was used mainly in religious and specialized literature, with the exception of a revival during the early modern period, when attempts were made to establish it as the language of a literary renaissance, with neoclassical inclinations, through the creation and dissemination of literature in varied genres, especially by

SECTION 50

#1732772593224

4160-538: The military-political leadership of Azerbaijan... this action fully fits into its policy of Armenophobia developed for decades. Azerbaijan, which has completely annihilated the Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhchivan and in other parts of the historical homeland of the Armenian people, now throughout the ongoing military aggression against Artsakh is trying to deprive Armenians of Artsakh of their homeland and historical memory." The Armenian Apostolic Church condemned

4240-504: The morphology of the language. Often, when writers codify a spoken dialect, other language users are then encouraged to imitate that structure through the literary device known as parallelism . In the 19th century, the traditional Armenian homeland was once again divided. This time Eastern Armenia was conquered from Qajar Iran by the Russian Empire , while Western Armenia , containing two thirds of historical Armenia, remained under Ottoman control. The antagonistic relationship between

4320-403: The now-anachronistic Grabar. Numerous dialects existed in the traditional Armenian regions, which, different as they were, had certain morphological and phonetic features in common. On the basis of these features two major standards emerged: Both centers vigorously pursued the promotion of Ashkharhabar. The proliferation of newspapers in both versions (Eastern & Western) and the development of

4400-541: The official status of the Armenian language. Eastern Armenian is the official variant used, making it the prestige variety while other variants have been excluded from national institutions. Indeed, Western Armenian is perceived by some as a mere dialect. Armenian was also official in the Republic of Artsakh . It is recognized as an official language of the Eurasian Economic Union although Russian

4480-639: The oldest surviving Armenian-language writing is etched in stone on Armenian temples and is called Mehenagir . The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots in 405, at which time it had 36 letters. He is also credited by some with the creation of the Georgian alphabet and the Caucasian Albanian alphabet . While Armenian constitutes the sole member of the Armenian branch of the Indo-European family, Aram Kossian has suggested that

4560-483: The parent languages of Greek and Armenian were dialects in immediate geographical proximity during the Proto-Indo-European period. Meillet's hypothesis became popular in the wake of his book Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue latine (1936). Georg Renatus Solta (1960) does not go as far as postulating a Proto-Graeco-Armenian stage, but he concludes that considering both the lexicon and morphology, Greek

4640-577: The past 30 years by systematically destroying the Armenian historical heritage." In December 2020 Human Rights Watch 's Europe and Central Asia director Hugh Williamson called on Azerbaijan to investigate the attacks. "It has been over a month since Azerbaijan has retaken control of Shushi and the government needs to waste no time in investigating the attacks and holding those responsible to account. Attacks such as these serve no military purpose and all parties should ensure these kinds of attacks are punished and otherwise prevented," he said. The town of Shusha

4720-407: The path to a new and simplified grammatical structure of the language in the two different cultural spheres. Apart from several morphological, phonetic, and grammatical differences, the largely common vocabulary and generally analogous rules of grammatical fundamentals allows users of one variant to understand the other as long as they are fluent in one of the literary standards. After World War I ,

4800-570: The population. The short-lived First Republic of Armenia declared Armenian its official language. Eastern Armenian was then dominating in institutions and among the population. When Armenia was incorporated into the USSR, the Armenian Soviet Socialist Republic made Eastern Armenian the language of the courts, government institutions and schools. Armenia was also russified . The current Republic of Armenia upholds

4880-475: The portals and windows. The church's floor plan is an imitation of that of Etchmiadzin Cathedral , Armenia's mother church. The cathedral is seen as having combined both innovative techniques and well-established traditions of Armenian architecture. Both the church and the bell tower are built of white limestone . The freestanding bell tower has three floors (levels) and contains two bells, the larger of which

SECTION 60

#1732772593224

4960-436: The representation of word-initial laryngeals by prothetic vowels, and other phonological and morphological peculiarities with Greek. Nevertheless, as Fortson (2004) comments, "by the time we reach our earliest Armenian records in the 5th century AD, the evidence of any such early kinship has been reduced to a few tantalizing pieces". Graeco-(Armeno)-Aryan is a hypothetical clade within the Indo-European family , ancestral to

5040-468: The similarities between the two languages meant that Armenian belonged to the Iranian language family . The distinctness of Armenian was recognized when philologist Heinrich Hübschmann (1875) used the comparative method to distinguish two layers of Iranian words from the older Armenian vocabulary . He showed that Armenian often had two morphemes for one concept, that the non-Iranian components yielded

5120-519: The terms he gives admittedly have an Akkadian or Sumerian provenance, but he suggests they were borrowed through Hurrian or Urartian. Given that these borrowings do not undergo sound changes characteristic of the development of Armenian from Proto-Indo-European , he dates their borrowing to a time before the written record but after the Proto-Armenian language stage. Contemporary linguists, such as Hrach Martirosyan , have rejected many of

5200-424: The time of its capture "practically, only a stone skeleton had remained of the magnificent structure." A foreign visitor noted that its "windows were missing but the interior was in reasonable condition." On 23 August 1992, Azerbaijani bombers launched attacks against the church. However, no serious casualties were reported. Felix Corley suggested that the attempt was not of any military importance and "appeared to be

5280-657: The total population, and more than four thousand Azerbaijanis. On March 1, Armenian refugees from Sumgayit arrived in Stepanakert, following the Sumgait pogrom . During the Summer-autumn of 1988 the wave of mutual violence in the NKAO grows. On September 18, 1988 a clash between Armenians and Azerbaijanis occurred near the Azerbaijani village of Khojaly (NKAO); several Armenians received gunshot wounds, one Armenian

5360-499: The violence, 3,117 ethnic Azerbaijanis were forced to leave Stepanakert. The events was one of the acts of ethnic violence in the context of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict , carried out along the demands of the Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh to secede from Azerbaijan and unify with Armenia. Throughout modern history the city of Shusha , known to Armenians as Shushi, mainly fostered a mixed Armenian–Azerbaijani population. Following

5440-418: The war, the Azerbaijani government announced a renovation of the cathedral in the frame of large-scale reconstruction work in Shusha. The renovation project attracted much attention and criticism, with many Armenians alleging that Azerbaijan was seeking to blot out the Armenian identity of the church by altering or obscuring its basic features and design elements. In May 2021, footage released by CivilNet showed

5520-482: The world. A landmark of Shusha and the Karabakh region, and of Armenian cultural and religious identity, it was listed as a cultural and historical monument of the former breakaway Republic of Artsakh . Built between 1868 and 1887, the cathedral was consecrated in 1888. It was damaged during the March 1920 massacre of the city's Armenians —and the destruction of their half of the city—by Azerbaijanis and experienced

5600-509: Was captured by Azerbaijani forces by November 9, 2020, when a trilateral armistice agreement was reached between Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. On November 14 a photo emerged online showing graffiti on the cathedral's wall. Armenia's Ministry of Culture released a statement claiming that there was already evidence of vandalism against the cathedral. The Armenian Church described the vandalism as desecration and strongly condemned it as an "expression of obvious vandalism and intolerance." After

5680-551: Was cast in Tula, Russia in 1857. Four sculptures of angels blowing trumpets stand on the top of its first floor. The cathedral, along with Gandzasar monastery , is a symbol of history and identity for the Armenians of Artsakh/Karabakh. Novelist Zori Balayan noted that it was often referenced during the emergence of the Karabakh Movement . It has become a symbol of the liberation of the city as perceived by Armenians and

5760-416: Was "perceived more as a cultural process aimed at a restoration of the Armenian cultural heritage, a spiritual and physical 'rebirth' of the Armenian nation" and came to symbolize the rebirth of Shushi. It now "towers, immaculate once more, above the ruined town," wrote de Waal in his 2003 book Black Garden . Daniel Bardsley wrote in 2009 that the cathedral is now "one of the few pristine-looking buildings in

5840-503: Was a mistake and we don’t have any historical or religious targets..." In an interview with BBC , Aliyev stated: "the images of that church which I have seen, show that it is a very minor damage. And this damage can be repaired within maximum two weeks." Almost two years after the war, Aliyev's advisor Hikmet Hajiyev said that the church "sustained collateral damage " during the war. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) stated that they were "dismayed to learn that

5920-494: Was condemned by US Representative Frank Pallone and German MP Albert Weiler , among others. A statement released by the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS), signed by Israel Charny , Yair Auron , Matthias Bjørnlund , Tessa Hofmann and others argued that the strikes on the church are "a part of policy of the cultural genocide that the Azerbaijani government has been implementing over

6000-623: Was killed. According to Thomas de Waal , "the violence heralded disaster for the minority communities of Karabakh's two main towns, as all the Armenians were driven from Shusha and the Azerbaijanis were expelled from Stepanakert". The exchange of populations took place as a result of clashes in Khojaly. In Stepanakert Armenians burned Azerbaijani houses, while in Shusha Azerbaijanis burned Armenian houses. Since May 1988 this

6080-708: Was reconsecrated on 18 June 1998 on the Feast of the Transfiguration by Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan , the Primate of the Diocese of Artsakh. The first Divine Liturgy at the restored cathedral took place on July 19 with attendance of Nagorno-Karabakh President Arkadi Ghukasyan and officials from Armenia. Archbishop Sebouh Chouldjian read a letter from Catholicos Karekin I , who did not attend due to health problems. Yulia Antonyan suggested that its reconstruction

6160-405: Was situated between Proto-Greek ( centum subgroup) and Proto-Indo-Iranian ( satem subgroup). Ronald I. Kim has noted unique morphological developments connecting Armenian to Balto-Slavic languages . The Armenian language has a long literary history, with a 5th-century Bible translation as its oldest surviving text. Another text translated into Armenian early on, and also in the 5th-century,

6240-682: Was the Armenian Alexander Romance . The vocabulary of the language has historically been influenced by Western Middle Iranian languages , particularly Parthian ; its derivational morphology and syntax were also affected by language contact with Parthian, but to a lesser extent. Contact with Greek, Persian , and Syriac also resulted in a number of loanwords. There are two standardized modern literary forms, Eastern Armenian (spoken mainly in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken originally mainly in modern-day Turkey and, since

6320-473: Was the expulsion of the ethnic Armenian population of Shusha and the ethnic Azerbaijani population of Stepanakert , in the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in the Azerbaijani SSR , Soviet Union , from September 18 to 20, 1988. During the violence, 33 Armenians and 16 Azerbaijanis were wounded, more than 30 houses hed been set on fire, and a 61-year-old Armenian was killed. At the end of

6400-499: Was the first anti-Armenian violence in Shusha. Armenian population of Shusha were subjected to tension. A crowd of 600 people threatened to burn down houses of Armenians, destroyed their property. The expulsion of Azerbaijanis in Stepanakert also began on September 18, 1988, with 3,117 ethnic Azerbaijanis becoming refugees at the end of the month. The violence was accompanied by beatings and arson of houses. On September 21,

#223776