(LifeSiteNews) — More than 120,000 Armenian Christians have been ethnically cleansed from Nagorno-Karabakh — also known as the Republic of Artsakh — by Azerbaijani forces since October 2023.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Mel Gibson, and others have condemned the attacks, which were carried out with weapons provided by Israel and Turkey.
Azerbaijan is 97% Muslim. It described its 2023 offensive as an “anti-terror” campaign. In reality, it was a religiously driven attack that left many innocent civilians dead.
In mid-2024, Armenia said in a case before the International Court of Justice that Azerbaijan had “completed” its cleansing of Christians in the region by “erasing all traces of ethnic Armenians’ presence.”
Western media outlets have said nary a word about this.
Last month, diplomats from both countries announced a peace plan was nearing completion. But that has since been stymied due to Azerbaijan accusing Armenia of violating the agreement.
The Vatican took an interest in the conflict soon after fighting broke out. While neither Pope Francis nor his Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, have described the situation as “ethnic cleansing,” Parolin visited both countries in late 2023, presumably to calm tensions.
While the Vatican has played a supportive role in talks between the countries ever since, critics maintain it has been used to lend credibility to Azerbaijan’s autocratic ruler, Ilham Aliyev. Others have pointed out that the Vatican and the country’s Heydar Aliyev Foundation entered into an agreement in 2024 to help restore St. Paul’s Outside the Walls in Rome. Heydar Aliyev was a KGB official who dominated Azerbaijan politics since the 1970s until his death in 2003, when his son Ilham Aliyev took over.
Earlier this month, the Holy See bestowed its most prestigious award upon Azerbaijan’s current ambassador to the Holy See, Ilgar Mukhtarov, a Muslim.
Mukhtarov received the Holy Cross of the knighthood of the Order of Pope Pius IX from Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, a close confidant of Francis who works as a deputy of Parolin.
The Order of Pope Pius IX is the highest award the Vatican can give. It is presented to those who perform exceptional services rendered to the Church and society.
But it is difficult see how Mukhtarov is deserving of such an award given the tactics his country has employed against Christians in the region.
On April 10, the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome hosted an event titled “Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modern Times.” Like Mukhtarov’s award, it too has been denounced by Armenian Christians.
“This is taking place at a time when the international community has not yet delivered an adequate assessment of Azerbaijan’s genocidal actions,” the Armenian Apostolic Church remarked in a statement.
Kaspar Karampetian has condemned the event as well. Karampetian is the president of the European Armenian Federation for Justice and Democracy. In an open letter addressed to the chancellor and rector of the Gregorian University, he explained that “the very premise of this conference … is a transparent and infuriating act of historical revisionism.”
Karampetian also said the gathering amplified rhetoric “employed by Azerbaijan to justify its genocidal ethnic cleansing and destruction of Armenian presence in Nagorno-Karabakh.”
John Eibner of Christian Solidarity International likewise rebuked the meeting. He provided the following analysis in a social media post exposing the Vatican’s hypocrisy.
“Not only has Azerbaijan driven the Armenian Christian population out of Nagorno Karabakh after a nine-month blockade, it is currently staging show trials of Armenian Christian hostages in Baku and is busy erasing the Armenian Christian heritage of the region, using the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome as a one of its platforms,” he said.
“The Vatican’s Secretariat of State would better serve the ecumenical mission of the Church by standing in solidarity with the persecuted Armenian parts of the Body of Christ than by enhancing the legitimacy of the persecuting Aliyev regime in return for a share of its shady oil revenues.”
It should be obvious how much of a scandal it is for the Vatican to not only give its highest award to an ambassador who is complicit in Christian cultural genocide but to also accept money from an organization named after a communist dictator and to host a conference aimed at whitewashing history about Armenian Christians. At the same time, this is the same institution whose Secretary of State is a frequent guest at Davos and Bilderberg meetings and who negotiates deals with China to have state-approved bishops. Bad news is par for the course in Rome these days. We can only pray that things change. Quickly.
