After Azerbaijan liberated its lands from the Armenian occupation, Yerevan launched a large-scale campaign to discredit Azerbaijan. As part of this campaign, Armenia accused the Azerbaijani side of allegedly destroying Christian churches. But what's really going on? Why did Yerevan need to hide behind this lie?
It is generally recognized that, unlike Azerbaijan, Armenia is a mono-ethnic and mono-religious country, where there is no tolerance and respect for other religions and cultures.
Even though Armenia is a Christian country, Muslim and Christian shrines are exposed to disrespectful and barbaric treatment.
It will be enough to look at how many mosques, churches, and temples were destroyed in Azerbaijani lands through the years of their occupation by Armenia.
This is the true face of Armenian 'tolerance':
Armenian vandals destroyed 63 of the 67 mosques in Karabakh, while the rest of the mosques were seriously damaged.
Almost all churches and monasteries of Albanian Christians were either destroyed or underwent Armenization.
Armenia tried to erase the religious and cultural heritage of multi-ethnic and multi-religious Azerbaijan, which historically existed in the liberated territories.
The Russian Orthodox Church in honor of the Transfiguration of the Lord, erected in 1894, also had a sad fate of destruction. It is the only Russian Orthodox Church in Nagorno-Karabakh. The church is located in Khojavand, the region which was occupied by the Armenian Armed Forces in February 1992.
This is while representatives of all religions live side by side in full harmony in Azerbaijan. With the state's financial support, the restoration work was carried out in synagogues, Orthodox churches, and temples.
The protestant and catholic churches are operating freely. In the center of Baku stands the Armenian church, which is preserved ideally and is protected by the state.