University Risks Complicity in Azerbaijan’s Broader Campaign of Denial and Cultural Genocide
The Armenian Legal Center for Justice and Human Rights (ALC) has issued an urgent open letter to the Pontifical Gregorian University, condemning its decision to host the Azerbaijani state-sponsored international conference titled “Christianity in Azerbaijan: History and Modernity,” held on April 10, 2025. The ALC warns that this event served as a platform for historical distortion and an attempt to legitimize Azerbaijan’s campaign to erase the Armenian Christian presence in Artsakh, in direct violation of international law and academic ethics.
“The event, organized with the participation of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, raises urgent legal, ethical, and human rights concerns with direct implications under international law,” states the letter from the ALC. “By permitting a state-led conference advancing the discredited theory of ‘Caucasian Albanian’ continuity—used to appropriate Armenian Christian religious and cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh—the University risks complicity in a broader campaign of denial and cultural genocide.”
The ALC’s letter outlines how Azerbaijan’s systematic campaign to erase and appropriate centuries-old Armenian churches, monasteries, and cross-stones (khachkars) in Artsakh constitutes a violation of international legal instruments, including the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property, the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The ALC also stresses that excluding Armenian scholars and representatives from the conference undermines the principles of academic fairness, integrity, and pluralism.
In response, the Armenian Legal Center calls on the Pontifical Gregorian University to take immediate corrective measures. These include issuing a formal public clarification disassociating the University from the revisionist narratives presented at the conference, condemning the use of academic platforms to promote cultural appropriation and human rights denial, and affirming a commitment to inclusive representation by ensuring that affected communities, particularly Armenians, are included in future scholarly discourse. The ALC further urges the establishment of an independent review panel, composed of legal, historical, and cultural heritage experts, including Armenian representatives, to assess and prevent future misuse of academic spaces for state propaganda.
“This issue transcends academic discourse—it strikes at the heart of ethnic and cultural survival, historical truth, and the protection of fundamental rights,” the letter continues. “In moments like this, silence is not neutrality—it is complicity.”
The conference has drawn strong condemnation from Armenian Church leaders around the world, including His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, and the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
The Armenian Legal Center urges the Vatican-affiliated University to uphold its moral and academic responsibilities by ensuring that its platforms are not used to distort history or legitimize cultural and religious eradication.
The full text of the open letter is available at: