Entire Village and Church Destroyed in Azerbaijan’s Recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh
The recent demolition of a historic church in Nagorno-Karabakh has raised concerns about the erasure of Armenian heritage in the region. The St. John the Baptist Church in Susa, known as Kanach Zham in Armenian, was destroyed in the winter of 2023-2024, as revealed by images from monitoring group Caucasus Heritage Watch.
After Azerbaijan recaptured Susa/Shushi from ethnic Armenian forces in 2020, the church, along with an entire village called Dasalti/Karintak, was razed to the ground. New satellite photos show a mosque being constructed in place of the village, indicating a deliberate effort to wipe out all traces of Armenian presence in the area.
Husik Ghulyan from Caucasus Heritage Watch believes Azerbaijan’s goal is to rebuild the area for Azerbaijani settlers. Despite legal protections, the village’s church was left intact, possibly for symbolic reasons. The site, once home to agriculture and industry, now stands as a ghost town marked by bullet holes from the recent conflict.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s visit to oversee the mosque’s construction in Dasalti/Karintak raised further concerns about the erasure of Armenian heritage. Iranian academic Ali Mozaffari suggests that the destruction of cultural sites in Nagorno-Karabakh aligns with a broader geopolitical vision of a unified Turkic world, fueled by Turkey’s influence.
Caucasus Heritage Watch has documented the destruction of several heritage sites in the region since 2020, highlighting a pattern of cultural erasure. The group warns of a similar fate to that of Nakhchivan, where Armenian heritage was virtually erased over a decade. The total destruction of heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh may take years to unfold, underscoring the urgency of preserving cultural history in the region.
