Armenia: Cultural Genocide.

Azerbaijan's demolishing of Stepanakert Cathedral is cultural genocide of Christian Armenia.

By Stephan Pechdimaldji, Op-ed contributor Saturday, May 09, 2026

A priest stands in front of a church in Stepanakert on September 27, 2023. Armenia said on Sept. 27, 2023, that 42,500 refugees have arrived from Nagorno-Karabakh since Azerbaijan's lightning offensive, representing a third of the separatist ethnic Armenian enclave's population. | SIRANUSH SARGSYAN/AFP via Getty Images

History has taught us that genocide does not end with the removal of a people. It ends with the removal of their memory. In the heart of the South Caucasus, a silent erasure is unfolding.

While the geopolitical maps of the region were redrawn following the ethnic cleansing of more than 120,000 Armenians from their ancestral homeland of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) by Azerbaijan, a secondary, more insidious Azeri campaign is reaching new heights. The latest casualty in this war of attrition is the Stepanakert Cathedral, a sacred landmark and a symbol of Armenian life in Artsakh. Recent satellite imagery and reports indicate the systematic dismantling of this holy site, a move that signifies not just the end of a building, but the deliberate deletion of an entire civilization’s existence.

CP.