{"id":20726,"date":"2026-10-05T19:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arvak.am\/?p=20726"},"modified":"2026-10-05T20:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T16:03:16","slug":"strategy-for-the-albanization-of-the-christian-heritage-of-the-south-caucasus-geopolitical-objectives-and-mechanisms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arvak.am\/en\/strategy-for-the-albanization-of-the-christian-heritage-of-the-south-caucasus-geopolitical-objectives-and-mechanisms\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategy for the \u201cAlbanization\u201d of the Christian heritage of the South Caucasus: Geopolitical objectives and mechanisms"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ARVAK Center comment<\/strong>, <\/strong>October 05, <\/strong>2026<\/strong><\/span>[1]<\/sup><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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1. Introduction and the relevance of the \u201cAlbanian project\u201d<\/h4>\n

The events unfolding in recent months clearly demonstrate the Azerbaijani leadership\u2019s complete focus on promoting the so-called \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d. Baku seeks to turn this issue into an effective political lever for reshaping the balance of power in the South Caucasus and finally establishing its own regional hegemony. To this end, the Azerbaijani authorities have launched a large-scale inventory of the \u201cmaterial and cultural heritage of Caucasian Albania,\u201d into which Christian architectural sites belonging exclusively to the Armenian and Georgian historical and cultural spheres are being artificially fitted.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the Azerbaijani side is intensively working to build an ideological and political foundation intended to ensure the recreation of \u201cAlbanian autocephaly\u201d. In Baku\u2019s view, this structure should receive official recognition from the global Christian community.<\/p>\n

ARVAK Center has repeatedly analyzed the steps taken by the Azerbaijani authorities \u2013 both domestically and internationally \u2013 to legitimize this historically anachronistic and spiritually and canonically untenable concept. In particular, the comments [1<\/a>, 2<\/a>] examined in detail the instrumentalization of the small Udi ethnic group in large-scale political combinations, as well as attempts to involve influential global Christian centers (the Vatican and the Patriarchate of Constantinople) in this process. The Center also predicted the inevitable escalation of these efforts against the backdrop of deteriorating relations between the Armenian Apostolic Church (AAC) and the authorities of the Republic of Armenia.<\/p>\n

2. International-diplomatic escalation and pressure on Armenia<\/h4>\n

The validity of ARVAK\u2019s analytical forecasts has been confirmed: the autumn events of 2026 were marked by the shift of Azerbaijan\u2019s claims concerning the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d into the international-diplomatic sphere, accompanied by direct pressure on Yerevan and the presentation of tough demands. The peak period of this informational and political escalation was September. In particular on September 12, 2026, the Administration of the President and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan initiated a visit by heads of diplomatic missions and representatives of international organizations to the ancient Armenian monastery of Gandzasar, located in Nagorno-Karabakh. The guests were shown so-called \u201cevidence\u201d<\/em> of alleged Armenian falsifications concerning the site\u2019s origins, while narratives about the \u201cappropriation\u201d <\/em>and \u201cArmenianization\u201d <\/em>of the cultural and historical heritage of Caucasian Albania were simultaneously promoted.<\/p>\n

Following this, on September 22, 2026, the State Service for the Protection, Development and Restoration of Azerbaijan\u2019s Cultural Heritage announced the inclusion in the INTERPOL international database of cultural heritage items removed from the Artsakh monastery of Dadivank in November 2020. The head of the agency, Sabina Gadzhiyeva, stated that Baku had initiated this procedure as early as 2025 in response to the alleged \u201ctheft\u201d<\/em> and \u201cillegal transit\u201d<\/em> to Armenia of frescoes, khachkars, and bells removed from the complex, which the Azerbaijani side presented as elements of an \u201cauthentic Albanian-Christian tradition\u201d. <\/em>Gadzhiyeva emphasized Baku\u2019s intention to consistently defend this position in all international structures and seek a systemic resolution of the issue, asserting that the claims cover not only the cultural objects of Dadivank but the entire body of the historical and architectural heritage of Caucasian Albania in Karabakh.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, on September 28, 2026, at the UN headquarters in New York, during the 81st<\/sup> session of the UN General Assembly, the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) and participants of the conference \u201cThe Right to Return and Decolonization\u201d addressed a joint appeal to UN special rapporteurs. In addition to calling for assistance in the return of Azerbaijanis to Armenia within the framework of the \u201cWestern Azerbaijan\u201d<\/em> concept, the document includes a demand to \u201censure the protection and preservation of cultural, religious, and historical heritage on the territory of Armenia\u201d<\/em>, including \u201cChristian monuments of Caucasian Albania\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

During the period under review, more than 10 different forums, seminars, and public events devoted to the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d were held in Azerbaijan. Their key objectives were declared to be preventing the \u201cArmenianization\u201d<\/em> of the Christian heritage (both tangible and intangible) of Caucasian Albania, as well as revising the international academic discourse on the history of South Caucasian Christianity. According to the Azerbaijani organizers, international researchers, following Armenian authors, distort the picture of historical processes and diminish the significant contribution of the Albanian Church to the formation of the region\u2019s cultural and civilizational foundation.<\/p>\n

In particular, on September 22, 2026, in Baku, a special \u201cWorking Group for the Study of the Cultural Heritage of Caucasian Albania on the Territory of Modern Armenia\u201d was established under the structure known as the \u201cWestern Azerbaijan Community\u201d (WAC). The group\u2019s activities focus on studying Armenian monasteries, churches, and chapels, with mandatory examination of their inscriptions and architecture on the basis of archival sources; its declared key objective is the \u201cinclusion of the region\u2019s multilayered religious and cultural heritage in the context of the history and culture of Azerbaijanis\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

On the eve of this event, on September 21, 2026, actions organized by the Center for Analysis of International Relations and Multiculturalism of Azerbaijan were held in Baku on the topic \u201cThe Heritage of Caucasian Albania in the History of Azerbaijani Statehood\u201d. Scholars, representatives of state bodies, civil society activists, and religious leaders took part in the discussions. In their statements, they unanimously criticized the \u201ccenturies-long practice of the Armenian side and the AAC of appropriating and distorting the historical and cultural heritage of the Caucasian Albanians\u201d<\/em>. Participants announced the launch of an initiative to restore \u201chistorical justice\u201d<\/em>, emphasizing that the program for the \u201crestoration\u201d<\/em> of Albanian heritage should also extend to monuments located directly within the borders of the Republic of Armenia.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, on September 23, 2026, a seminar entitled \u201cAlbanian Heritage in Western Azerbaijan\u201d, organized by the National Forum of Azerbaijani NGOs (NFANGO), was held in Baku. According to the APA news agency, historians, archaeologists, public figures, and NGO leaders participated in the event. The organizers emphasized that the key objective of the meeting was to \u201chighlight a strategically important milestone in history <\/em>\u2013<\/em> the Albanian Christian heritage in Western Azerbaijan\u201d<\/em>. During the presentations, claims were made that major Armenian spiritual centers, including Tatev, Goshavank, Noravank, and Aruch, in fact represent monuments of Albanian architecture. On this basis, it was argued that Baku must seek the \u201crestoration of historical truth\u201d<\/em> and the return to the Azerbaijani people of the heritage of their \u201cancestors\u201d \u2013 the Caucasian Albanians. The seminar concluded with the assertion: \u201cThe heritage of Caucasian Albania is an integral element of the ethnogenesis, cultural memory, and statehood of Azerbaijan\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Similar \u201cinformational and educational\u201d <\/em>campaigns were also organized at numerous Azerbaijani universities. Their official objective was to immerse students and young people generally in the history of the Azerbaijani people and to popularize the concept of \u201creviving historical and political justice distorted by the Armenian Church, scholars, and state officials\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the Azerbaijani side is displaying unprecedented intensity in promoting the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d, turning it into a key vector of its state strategy. The main specificity of the current stage is that Baku has taken this campaign far beyond its previous boundaries. Previously, its actions were largely limited to the pseudo-Albanization of authentic Armenian Christian architecture directly in Nagorno-Karabakh \u2013 where, following the exodus of the Armenian population after the escalations of 2020 and 2023, conditions emerged for direct control over the monuments of Artsakh, followed by the reconstruction or elimination of sites that contradicted the official \u201cAlbanian concept\u201d \u2013 whereas the claims have now acquired a different scale.<\/p>\n

3. Expansion of claims to Georgian heritage<\/h4>\n

The doctrine of \u201cconsolidating Albanian heritage\u201d<\/em> formulated by the Azerbaijani authorities has substantially expanded the geographical scope of their overt political claims. The \u201cAlbanian narrative\u201d has been transformed: it has moved beyond the framework of seeking a domestic national identity and become an international and regional issue with a pronounced geopolitical subtext. The expansion of Baku\u2019s narratives has not merely crossed the boundaries of the Karabakh cultural area and targeted a revision of Armenian heritage within the borders of the Republic of Armenia but has also encompassed the indigenous Georgian historical and civilizational heritage.<\/p>\n

In September 2026, relations between official Baku and the Georgian Orthodox Church (GOC) again deteriorated. The immediate cause of the latest dispute was archaeological excavations conducted near the Church of St. George in Kurmukhi (Gakh District of Azerbaijan) without coordination with the Georgian Patriarchate. Official Tbilisi regards this church and the adjoining lands as part of the historical Georgian region of Hereti (Saingilo), where an indigenous Georgian population \u2013 the Ingiloys \u2013 still lives today. Azerbaijani historical narratives, however, assign this region to the heritage of Caucasian Albania and the site itself to the \u201cAlbanian Church\u201d. <\/em>Representatives of the GOC strongly criticized Azerbaijan\u2019s \u201crestoration and archaeological works\u201d<\/em> in Kurmukhi, stating that the use of heavy construction equipment near the church walls serves fundamentally different purposes.<\/p>\n

In response to the GOC\u2019s demarche<\/em>, the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reacted sharply: the Azerbaijani side accused the Georgian Patriarchate of latent territorial claims associated with the mention of the ancient toponym \u201cHereti\u201d<\/em>. The Baku ministry called on the Georgian clergy \u201cnot to repeat the mistakes of the Armenian Church\u201d<\/em>, while separately stating that all historical and architectural monuments within the borders of Azerbaijan constitute its exclusive national heritage.<\/p>\n

Georgia\u2019s expert community viewed the Azerbaijani statements as a veiled threat and an attempt to employ the same instruments of historical revisionism that had previously been tested in Armenian Artsakh. According to their assessments, Baku\u2019s actions around Kurmukhi follow the same logic as its approach to the Armenian monuments of Nagorno-Karabakh (including Gandzasar, Dadivank, Amaras, the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral, and other Christian sanctuaries). Having declared these sites to be part of Albanian Christianity, Azerbaijan proceeded with \u201crestoration\u201d<\/em> aimed at distorting and neutralizing their authentic architectural and historical appearance.<\/p>\n

These events triggered active discussions in Georgian society and political circles about the mistaken nature of the long-term strategy of concessions and restraint toward Baku and Ankara. According to its critics, such an approach allowed neighboring states to interpret history freely and advance claims to Georgian Christian heritage. The debate concerns not only Georgian religious sites in the Gakh and Zaqatala districts of Azerbaijan, but also monuments on the territory of Georgia itself, including the major David-Gareja monastery complex in the Sagarejo municipality of Kakheti.<\/p>\n

For more than 20 years, Baku has questioned Tbilisi\u2019s historical and administrative-political rights to the David-Gareja monastery complex and the adjacent lands. Because of this protracted territorial dispute, the process of delimiting and demarcating the border, presumed to run along the ridge of hills in the area of the monastery, remains frozen indefinitely. Nevertheless, without waiting for decisions by the joint intergovernmental commissions, the Azerbaijani side unilaterally deployed border posts and strongpoints at strategically advantageous locations within the complex. As a result, Georgian clergy and pilgrims lost the opportunity to visit the churches and sanctuaries of David-Gareja, to which Baku has asserted its own claims.<\/p>\n

In Georgian society, which is deeply sensitive to questions of national identity and religious values, public indignation at the actions of the country\u2019s leadership is steadily growing. Citizens express dissatisfaction with political elites that, since the \u201cRose Revolution\u201d, have built a framework of interaction with Azerbaijan that infringes upon the principles of equality and mutual compromise.<\/p>\n

In the view of numerous representatives of Georgian society and political groups adhering to principles of Christian traditionalism and Georgia-centered nationalism, the official authorities in Tbilisi have long ignored the problem of Baku\u2019s systematic claims to Georgia\u2019s cultural and historical heritage. This permissiveness, driven by economic expansion and energy dependence on Azerbaijan, allowed the Baku authorities to freely promote a distorted interpretation of regional history. As a result, such restraint led Azerbaijan to move the issue of Albanian ethnocultural identity into an exclusively political sphere, laying the groundwork for potential encroachment on Georgian sovereignty. This scenario appears to be a well-founded threat to the active part of society. Against this backdrop, the Georgian Orthodox Church remains the only institution offering real resistance to Azerbaijan\u2019s strategy, yet it clearly lacks the political instruments and resources necessary for containment. A familiar but no less paradoxical situation has emerged: while the Georgian Patriarchate engages in direct and uncompromising polemics with Azerbaijan\u2019s state and diplomatic structures, Georgia\u2019s leadership refrains from taking tough measures, evidently fearing a direct confrontation scenario with Baku.<\/p>\n

4. Timing and geopolitical context<\/h4>\n

Consequently, Baku\u2019s intensification of activity around the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d has reached its peak. Employing manipulative methods and plagiarism, Azerbaijan is conducting a systematic inventory and asserting claims to the \u201cinheritance\u201d <\/em>of the material and spiritual heritage of the region\u2019s ancient Christian cultures. At the same time, the spatial and temporal scope of Baku\u2019s claims extends far beyond the geopolitical and historical boundaries of the small South Caucasian kingdom that, more than a thousand years ago, rapidly lost its sovereignty, ethnocultural identity, and civilizational distinctiveness under the pressure of Islamic expansion.<\/p>\n

The timing of the current escalation of Baku\u2019s activity has been calculated with great precision. The practice of \u201cAlbanization\u201d<\/em> of Armenian cultural, historical, and architectural sites in Artsakh showed the Azerbaijani authorities that supranational and international structures are limited to passive reactions or fail to notice such steps altogether. At the same time, the global scientific and academic community lacks effective institutional instruments to block state policies of falsifying history and disseminating pseudoscientific concepts.<\/p>\n

Having become convinced of its impunity in appropriating Armenian civilizational heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh, Baku seeks to extend the same practice to Armenian Christian monuments within the Republic of Armenia itself. If it proves impossible to immediately establish rights over these sites, the key objective of the first stage is at least to artificially introduce the thesis that their ownership is allegedly \u201cdisputed\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In addition, the choice of the moment for intensifying Baku\u2019s policy was directly influenced by the deep crisis in relations between the Armenian Apostolic Church and Armenia\u2019s highest leadership. Having come under serious institutional and political pressure domestically, and facing risks of centrifugal processes in certain dioceses, the Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin has been forced to divert attention and resources away from countering external threats. Baku has deliberately exploited this factor, although the strategy of \u201cAlbanizing\u201d<\/em> the Christian cultural heritage of the South Caucasus \u2013 and above all Armenian spiritual and material assets \u2013 was developed by the Azerbaijani authorities long before the emergence of internal tensions around the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Baku regarded the current moment as the most favorable for advancing similar claims to Georgian Christian heritage in the South Caucasus. This is explained by objective factors: the position and patriarchal authority of the newly elected Catholicos-Patriarch Shio III have not yet become sufficiently consolidated to effectively withstand Azerbaijani pressure. As a result, the GOC has limited ability to influence the formation of a model of relations between Tbilisi and Baku that would allow disputes over Christian sanctuaries to be settled with maximum consideration for the interests of the Patriarchate and the sentiments of Georgian believers.<\/p>\n

Earlier, in its May 23, 2026, publication<\/a> ARVAK Center examined in detail the multifaceted pressure exerted on Georgia\u2019s new Catholicos-Patriarch, both from within the state and by key global actors. At the same time, it was forecast that for Shio III, the need to resolve complex interstate disputes concerning the ownership of religious complexes along the Azerbaijan-Georgia border would become a serious test. The simulation of research and restoration activities around the Church of St. George in Hereti was, from Baku\u2019s perspective, a kind of reconnaissance in force: the Azerbaijani authorities sought to gauge the possible steps of the Georgian Patriarchate and the newly elected primate personally in order to formulate an optimal strategy for imposing their \u201cAlbanian concept\u201d on Tbilisi.<\/p>\n

5. Plans to establish an \u201cAlbanian Catholicosate\u201d<\/h4>\n

Based on these trends, Baku\u2019s inevitable next step within the campaign to \u201cAlbanize\u201d<\/em> the Christian heritage of the South Caucasus will be an attempt to establish a so-called \u201cAlbanian Catholicosate\u201d.<\/em> The Azerbaijani side\u2019s intentions are reinforced by active public discussions within the country concerning the alleged \u201crevival\u201d<\/em> of autocephaly which, according to Baku, was abolished by Armenians with the assistance of the Russian Empire. For example, at the above-mentioned event organized by the Center for Analysis of International Relations and Multiculturalism on \u201cThe Heritage of Caucasian Albania in the History of Azerbaijani Statehood\u201d, Ramil Agaev, PhD in Historical Sciences and Head of the Department at the Institute of History and Ethnology of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, has directly stated that \u201cthe formation of a Catholicosate in Caucasian Albania is one of the important issues\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

ARVAK publications have previously examined Baku\u2019s efforts to legitimize the project of \u201crecreating\u201d <\/em>the \u201cAlbanian Catholicosate\u201d<\/em>. Following the military resolution of the Karabakh conflict, the Azerbaijani side has systematically sought to obtain a Tomos<\/em> (of Autocephaly) from one of the key centers of global Christianity, since such a step is a mandatory canonical requirement. According to Azerbaijani sources, Baku held negotiations with the Greek Patriarchate of Constantinople (Phanar) and established close dialogue with the Vatican, hoping for their assistance in recognizing the \u201cnew see\u201d<\/em>. Unofficial contacts on this agenda continue to this day, and some progress by the Azerbaijani side cannot be ruled out, which partly explains the recent surge of attention to the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d in Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

6. Systemic vulnerabilities and canonical insolvency<\/h4>\n

Despite Baku\u2019s apparent successes in artificially inflaming the \u201cAlbanian issue\u201d, thereby exerting pressure on Armenia and Georgia, as well as in promoting systematic scholarly and historical falsifications, this state strategy contains fundamentally vulnerable elements. First and foremost is the virtual absence of the necessary flock on which, and for the sake of which, the idea of Albanian autocephaly would have to be built. The Christian Udi population living in Azerbaijan, regarded as descendants of one of the many tribes of ancient Caucasian Albania, cannot serve as such a foundation either in terms of numbers or in terms of its qualitative composition.<\/p>\n

In the village of Nij \u2013 the only compact settlement of Udis in Azerbaijan \u2013 there are no more than 3,000 people. They previously followed the canons of the AAC, but under severe state pressure and the influence of Azerbaijani chauvinism they were forced to depart from this tradition; today, their religious practice is essentially reduced to a substrate of predominantly symbolic and ethnic attributes of the Christian faith. Approximately 4,000 ethnic Udis live in Baku and Absheron, and another 10,000 or so in Russia; however, these groups are subject to rapid assimilation and have practically lost their linguistic, cultural, and spiritual connection with their roots. Being on the verge of complete disappearance, the Udi ethnic group appears to be a disproportionately weak \u201cflock\u201d for such a large-scale structure as Baku is attempting to substantiate on the appropriated Armenian and Georgian spiritual heritage.<\/p>\n

The main vulnerability of the Baku initiative lies in its violation of centuries-old church traditions, which calls into question the possibility of such claims being accepted by the Universal Church. Contrary to the assertions of Azerbaijani propaganda, the historical Albanian Church did not possess a separate national authenticity and remained strictly within the canonical field of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This substantially complicates the issuance of a Tomos of Autocephaly<\/em> by leading Christian centers, both Greek Orthodox and Latin Catholic. And although questions of the canonical legitimacy of the \u201cAlbanian Church\u201d may appear secondary to Baku, it is precisely this disregard for tradition that may ultimately lead to the rejection of the project by a significant part of the Christian world.<\/p>\n

Another significant problem for Azerbaijan remains the contradictory nature of its policy of \u201cAlbanizing\u201d<\/em> Armenian cultural and religious heritage in Artsakh and the surrounding territories. On the one hand, official Baku publicly declares Christian sanctuaries to be its heritage; on the other, it destroys a number of sites or removes crosses and other Christian symbols from them. Such incompatibility of actions exposes the absence of a coherent state policy in this sphere and clearly points to the political subtext of Baku\u2019s entire initiative. Within this geopolitical game, \u201cAlbanian identity\u201d serves exclusively as a lever of pressure on neighboring countries, while the declining Udi ethnic group becomes a hostage of the program that has been launched.<\/p>\n

7. Conclusion<\/h4>\n

In conclusion, it can be stated that the Azerbaijani leadership\u2019s strategy of \u201cAlbanizing\u201d <\/em>the Christian heritage of the South Caucasus represents an overt geopolitical adventure. Nevertheless, Baku apparently recognizes the low feasibility of actually alienating the sanctuaries, proclaiming autocephaly, and legally consolidating claims to the sovereignty of Armenia and Georgia. The calculation is that the large-scale propaganda campaign surrounding this issue itself becomes an effective mechanism of psychological and political influence on neighboring countries. Regardless of the further fate of the \u201cAlbanian project\u201d, the Azerbaijani authorities have already become convinced of the effectiveness of this lever of pressure on the socio-political climate and the actions of the authorities of Armenia and Georgia in the context of their relations with Azerbaijan.<\/p>\n

\n

[1]<\/a> The original (in Rus.) was posted on our website on 05.10.2026.<\/p>\n

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