Photo Exclusive: Cathedral, Church Demolished In Nagorno-Karabakh

RFE
27 Apr 2026, 21:07 GMT+10

The cathedral of the largest city in Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region has been demolished, RFE/RL can confirm through satellite imagery made on April 26.

Reports that the Holy Mother of God Cathedral in Khankendi had been destroyed emerged in Armenian media in mid-April, but no clear recent imagery showing the site was available until now.

A combination image showing The Holy Mother of God Cathedral in late 2025 (top) and the same site on April 26.

Construction of the cathedral in Khankendi -- a city known by Armenians as Stepanakert -- began in 2006, and the site was consecrated in 2019.

As well as serving as the city's main site of worship, its basement wasrepurposed as a bomb shelterduring the conflicts with Azerbaijani forces that broke out in the 2020s.

The Holy Mother of God Cathedral in September 2023

Along with the cathedral, imagery sourced by RFE/RL confirms the Church of St. Jacob, another major Christian site in the city, has also been erased in recent weeks.

The Church of St. Jacob, in the north of Khankendi photographed before Azerbaijan retook the Nagorno-Karabakh region. (Photo courtesy of monumentwatch.org)

The Church of St. Jacob was completed in 2007 andwas fundedby an Armenian-American philanthropist in memory of his deceased son.

The Church of St. Jacob in the north of Khankendi seen in late 2025 (top) and the same site on April 26.

Armenia's Orthodox church authorities on April 23accusedAzerbaijan of "deliberately target[ing] Armenian Christian holy sites, seeking to erase the Armenian presence," from Nagorno-Karabakh. The church alleged cross stones in the grounds surrounding the demolished Church of St. Jacob have also been destroyed.

Elnare Akimova, a member of Azerbaijan's parliament, told RFE/RL's Azerbaijani service on April 22 that claims of the churches' destruction are "a provocation by revanchist forces" to harm Baku's image.

Akimova further claimed that her country "has preserved religious and historic monuments on its territories as a state policy. It has never had any intention to destroy any religious heritage."

The cupola of the Holy Mother of God Cathedral seen in 2018 (left) and a framegrab from an April 2026 video made from the same location.

On April 24, RFE/RL spoke to a staff member at a hotel located a few meters from the cathedral. The man initially told RFE/RL by telephone he did not have any information about the status of the cathedral, then said that "everything around the hotel is present" before claiming the cathedral was still in place.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

A social media post (above) from early February shows a construction-type fence surrounding the cathedral. It is believed the building was demolished by early April.

More than 100,000 ethnic Armenians fled Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories amid a series of military offensives launched by Baku that culminated in Azerbaijan's full recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023.

The military campaigns followed decades of de-facto ethnic Armenian control of the territory and surrounding areas following the First Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian (center) lays flowers at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan on April 24.

The reports of the latest Christian sites destroyed in Nagorno-Karabakh have sparked controversy ahead of Armenia's upcoming parliamentary elections as critics accuse Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian of failing to address the issue. Pashiniantold reportershis government is working to get complete information on the matter but called for "prudence" in such cases.

"I do not think that, taking into account our previous experience, we will make this a subject of international discussions at the state level," he said.

Photo Exclusive: Cathedral, Church Demolished In Nagorno-Karabakh