Russian Church announces appropriation of Armenian churches in Artsakh․ An offer was made to expel the Armenian clergy from Dadivank

According to 168. am, Baku offered the Russian side to replace the Armenian clergy in Dadivank with the clergy of the Baku Diocese of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Secretary of the Administration of the Baku Diocese, Archimandrite Alexei Nikonorov, has his influence on this issue. He was appointed to this service on October 24, 2021.

Nikonorov was born in Baku and is a historian and Doctor of Philosophy. In the early 2000s, he defended his dissertation on “Christianity in Caucasian Albania” at the Moscow Academy of Sciences. In one of his interviews, Nikonorov stated that the Armenian Apostolic Church allegedly “absorbed” the history and sovereignty of the Albanian Church, the website writes.

The newspaper has repeatedly referred to the programs of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church to appropriate the Armenian religious heritage. In the case of Artsakh, Baku’s steps are directed and sponsored by Moscow through the Baku Diocese of the Patriarchate.

The goal is to convert the Armenian religious centers to Chalcedon, open a “Church from Aghvan” and appeal to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for a Tomos. This is in line with the spirit of centuries of persecution against the Armenian Church in Russia, and hatred of Armenians.

Dadivank is the beginning of this process. The isolation of the Armenian clergy and the ban on pilgrimage takes place with the consent of Moscow and Baku, as part of a campaign to destroy the Armenian identity and Armenian heritage.

It should also be noted that Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the foreign church relations department of the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, announced in October last year that a small part of Artsakh was temporarily under Armenian control.

Source: www.lragir.am