On Christmas Eve, Stepanakert townspeople pray for war victims

On the eve of the Orthodox Christmas, liturgies were held in two operating churches in Stepanakert. Believers prayed for the wounded, killed and missing military servicemen during the Karabakh conflict aggravation.

On the Christmas Eve, in Stepanakert, liturgies were held on December 5 in two operating churches – the Church of Saint Akop (Saint James) and the Church of the Intercession of God's Mother.

According to the AAC's Artsakh Diocese, before the war, there were about 80 active churches and temples in Nagorno-Karabakh; after the hostilities, almost half of them survived.

Before the war, in the unrecognized republic, over 340 churches were registered as historical, cultural and spiritual monuments; now, after the war, over 125 of them have passed under Azerbaijan's control, Armine Airapetyan, the head of State Service for the Protection of the Historic Environment under the Nagorno-Karabakh's Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on January 5, 2021 at 11:58 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.