Saint Elisæus Church (, , ) or Jotaari Church (, after the quarter) is a former Armenian church, now used by Albanian-Udi religious community of Azerbaijan, located on the municipality of Nij in the Qabala region of Azerbaijan.
History The church was built in 1823 by a local priest Yengibar Yordanianc Ter-Astvacatowr on the gravesite and prior chapel of Vlas the Martyr, a disciple of Saint Elysaeus. It was repaired in 1879 by locals.National Archives of Armenia, fund 56, list 1, file 7067 (in Armenian).
Controversy It was repaired again in 2004 as part of a project financed by Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise. The destruction during that renovation of Armenian inscriptions associated with the church prompted a protest by Norway's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Steinar Gil, who refused to attend the reopening of the monument and compared the erasing to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan. The Norwegian Embassy in Baku described the destruction as an "act of vandalism". Three inscriptions on the walls of the church were destroyed, including two on the lintel and tympanum of the south entrance; Armenian inscriptions on the gravestones that surrounded the church were also erased."[hetq.am/en/article/10215 Triumph of Tolerance or Vandalism?]" Hetq. The destruction of the inscriptions, together with Azerbaijan's labeling of the church as "Albanian" and its denial that the church had an Armenian identity, has been described as being part of a wider "cultural genocide against Armenian monuments in Azerbaijan".Azerbaijan – Out of Civilization; Yerevan, 2017. Pages 11, 28,29. and http://www.raa-am.com/raa/pdf_files/174.pdf
In May 2018, in a report submitted to the UN General Assembly by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations, the erasing of the Armenian inscriptions at Nij was cited as evidence that "all restoration work of Christian architectural monuments in Azerbaijan was carried out in such a way as to destroy the traces of Armenian architecture, as well as the Armenian inscriptions".Memorandum of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh on the state of the historical and cultural monuments in Artsakh and Azerbaijan, page 5/21. https://undocs.org/pdf?symbol=en/A/72/876
Priests The National Archives of Armenia holds several documents pertaining to the priests who once served in church: From 1832 until at least 1857 – Avetik Ohanjanian Jotaniants.National Archives of Armenia, fund 56, list 12, file 531 (in Armenian).National Archives of Armenia, fund 56, list 1, file 2596, p. 98 (in Armenian). He was grandson of founder Yengibar Astvatzatur Jotaniants and grave is near southern wall of the church. 1859–1885 – Hovhannes Ter-Astvatzatrian JotaniantsNational Archives of Armenia, fund 56, list 1, file 7628, p. 1 (in Armenian). 1879– 27 December 1910 – Hambardzum (Hovhannes) Avagian DallakiantsNational Archives of Armenia, fund 57, list 3, file 47, pp. 19–20 (in Armenian).
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