Imagine being forced from your home, prevented from returning, and then watching the government that controls your homeland invite foreign diplomats into your church to argue that your ancestors never built it.
Now imagine hearing the diplomats laugh.
This is not a hypothetical moral exercise. It happened at Gandzasar, a centuries-old Armenian monastery in Nagorno-Karabakh, historically known to Armenians as Artsakh.
In September 2023, following months of blockade and an Azerbaijani military offensive, virtually the entire Armenian population fled the region. Approximately 120,000 people lost their homes, communities, as well as access to churches, monasteries, and cemeteries that had shaped their identity for generations. The United Nations refugee agency documented the arrival of more than 100,000 refugees in Armenia in less than one week.
Now, Azerbaijan is not merely governing the territory. It is attempting to redefine the history of the people who were removed from it.
During a recent government-organized tour, Azerbaijani presidential adviser Hikmet Hajiyev brought foreign diplomats to Gandzasar. There, he opened what appeared to be an ancient Armenian manuscript. He displayed one page containing writing and an illustration, then turned through blank pages as members of the diplomatic audience laughed.
The performance carried an unmistakable accusation. Hajiyev presented the blank pages as supposed evidence that Armenians had fabricated the manuscript and falsified their history.
The accusation was false.
The volume was not an original manuscript. It was an exhibition facsimile created for the Gandzasar branch of the Matenadaran, Armenia’s internationally respected repository of ancient manuscripts. Only the pages intended for exhibition had been reproduced. The remaining leaves were deliberately left blank to give the display the physical form of a bound volume. The authentic manuscript remained protected at the Matenadaran in Yerevan.
Museums use facsimiles to display fragile documents without exposing the originals to damaging light, humidity, and repeated handling. The Matenadaran had publicly explained the nature of these reproductions before Hajiyev’s presentation. Its director has since shown the original manuscript alongside its corresponding facsimile.
The blank pages were not evidence of Armenian fraud. They were evidence that a museum had protected an original manuscript.
This was not merely a dispute over a museum exhibit. It was a demonstration of how cultural erasure can follow forced displacement.
When people are removed from their homeland, their churches, cemeteries, manuscripts, and inscriptions become witnesses. They preserve the evidence of who lived there, what they believed, and what they contributed. If those monuments are destroyed, renamed, or assigned another identity, the displaced are separated not only from their land but also from the historical record of their belonging.
Gandzasar was not demolished during this episode. Something more calculated was attempted. The monastery was permitted to remain while its Armenian identity was publicly diminished before an international audience.
The building survives, but the people who worshiped there are gone. The government controlling the territory is now attempting to control what the building is permitted to mean.
Gandzasar is a thirteenth-century monastery containing extensive Armenian inscriptions identifying its patrons, construction and consecration. Its Armenian history is not based on modern sentiment. It is written into the monastery itself.
The Azerbaijani organized tour reportedly included 150 representatives from 58 countries and nine international organizations. United States Chargé d’Affaires Amy Carlon participated in the broader visit. The U.S. Embassy’s account identifies her activities in Stepanakert and Shushi, although it does not establish that she attended the Gandzasar presentation.
European Union Special Representative for the South Caucasus Magdalena Grono is confirmed to have been present at Gandzasar. The video records laughter from members of the diplomatic audience, although it does not conclusively identify every person who laughed.
That distinction matters. Individual diplomats should not be accused without evidence. Their governments should, however, determine who attended, what they witnessed, and whether their representatives challenged the narrative being presented.
These were not ordinary tourists. They represented governments and international institutions. Their presence carried diplomatic authority. Their laughter gave a government-manufactured accusation what it could not provide for itself: the appearance of international acceptance.
Grono later visited the Matenadaran in Yerevan, where she viewed the original manuscripts and learned how the facsimiles had been produced. She subsequently stated that she did not dispute the Armenian presence and cultural footprint in Nagorno-Karabakh. Her acknowledgment was important, but it also demonstrated how easily Hajiyev’s claim could have been examined before it was received with laughter.
Washington should pay attention because the issue is larger than one monastery or one disputed manuscript. The question is whether a government can force a population from its homeland, control international access to the territory, and then use foreign diplomats to legitimize a rewritten account of who lived there.
The United States and European governments should provide a clear account of their representatives’ participation. They should also press Azerbaijan to permit sustained access for UNESCO and qualified independent specialists. A government-controlled tour cannot substitute for independent observation.
Diplomacy sometimes requires restraint. It never requires the suspension of judgment, nor does it require becoming part of a performance that mocks the history of a displaced people.
Azerbaijan may control Nagorno-Karabakh, but territorial control does not confer ownership over historical truth.
IN WAR ON BIBLE, PASTOR CONVICTED FOR PREACHING GOSPEL
The original manuscripts exist. The Armenian inscriptions remain carved into Gandzasar’s walls. The displaced families still remember the churches where they worshiped and the cemeteries where they buried their dead.
A people should not have to prove they existed simply because the government that displaced them now controls the room.
Dr. Paul Murray is CEO of Save Armenia and a Christian leader engaged in global religious freedom and policy advocacy.