Alban-Udi Christian community of Azerbaijan celebrates Holy Easter in liberated lands PHOTO

Representatives of the Alban-Udi Christian community of Azerbaijan held a Holy Easter ceremony in the Hadrut settlement of Azerbaijan’s Khojavand district on Wednesday.

The ceremony took place in one of the ancient Alban-Udi temples in Hadrut. Representatives of the community read prayers in the temple and lit candles to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus, the central figure of Christianity, APA reports.

The return of the Alban-Udi Christian community to Hadrut took place after Azerbaijan reclaimed its sovereignty in the territories once occupied by Armenia. Hadrut remained under Armenian occupation for 28 years from its occupation in 1992 to its liberation by the Azerbaijani forces in 2020.

The years of occupation have taken its tolls on the Alban-Udi Christian heritage due to the cultural vandalism committed by Armenians. The two Alban-Udi temples in Hadrut, including the White Cross and Blessed Virgin Mary churches, suffered seriously from the so-called “Gregorianization” policy of Armenia.

Armenians modified almost all the Albanian temples located in the once occupied Azerbaijani lands to claim them part of the Armenian cultural and spiritual heritage. An ancient Albanian temple in the Hunarli village of the Khojavand district, as well as the White Cross temple and the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, were desecrated and deliberately refashioned as “Armenian churches.”

Head of the Alban-Udi Christian community of Azerbaijan, Robert Mobili, said the temples in the Hadrut village belonged to the ancient Azerbaijani state of Caucasian Albania.

“There are churches of the X-XII centuries in Hadrut. The largest church here is the White Cross Church in Chinarli village. No matter how many changes and falsifications the Armenians made to these churches, the symbols and elements of the Albanian Church remained,” he said.

“Even here we see the influence of the Armenian Catholic Church. Because the seats here contain elements that are not typical of the Orthodox Church. There are also symbols of the Armenian Gregorian Church. No matter how much they tried to falsify, the identic elements and traces [of Alban-Udi heritage] on the stones remain.”

Udis, who live primarily in the northern Gabala and Oghuz regions of Azerbaijan, are direct descendants of the ancient Azerbaijani state of Caucasian Albania. Nearly 4,000 Udis are settled in Gabala's Nij village and 100 live in Oghuz. Nij village is home to two Alban-Udi temples. Members of this ancient tribe live also in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, as well as the city of Sumgait. A few Udis can be found in Russia, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, as well. However, the largest number of Udis in the world live in Azerbaijan.

The Azerbaijani Albanian-Udi religious community succeeded the Albanian (Caucasian) Independent Apostolic Church. As the first apostolic church in the Caucasus, the cathedral played a key role in establishing Christianity as the main religious belief in the state of Caucasian Albania, which has no relation with modern-day Albania in the Balkans. The religious and cultural life of the people of Azerbaijan and the entire Caucasus has also been affected by the Albanian Apostolic Church.

The government of Azerbaijan has been preserving the Alban-Udi heritage and other traces of Christianity in the liberated territories since their return to original owners. Azerbaijan’s Culture Ministry inscribed all Christian monuments in the Karabakh region in the list of monuments of national importance and supported the state-run campaign to restore the religious heritage in the liberated lands. According to official data, the liberated territories were home to 128 Albanian temples and monasteries and three Orthodox temples before the Armenian occupation in 1991-1994.