Խորհրդային Ադրբեջանի բռնաճնշումները եւ Արցախի թեմի փակումը (1920-1933)

Abstract

One of the most difficult stages in the history of the Diocese of the Artsakh Armenian Apostolic Church came after Artsakh's forced sovietization and annexation to Azerbaijan. For the Azerbaijani authorities, for the devastation of the Armenian-populated region and its forcible appropriation, it was important to neutralize and wipe out individuals and institutions that would likely endanger the Azeri plan of appropriation. Azerbaijan’s nationalistic policy, which was supported by the large-scale anti-religious campaigns of the USSR, aggravated the conditions of the Artsakh Diocese. Confiscations of churches and church properties, intimidation of believers, repression of the clergy and the imprisonment of the prelate eventually led to the closure of the Diocese. Based on partly unpublished archival materials, the paper focuses on the steps and action taken by the Azerbaijan authorities towards this closure and details the decade-long desperate attempts of the Catholicosate of Echmiadzin to maintain the prelacy.