2020 Ghazanchetsots Cathedral shelling

Armenia's Foreign Ministry issued an official statement describing it as "another crime of the military-political leadership of Azerbaijan... this action fully fits into its policy of Armenophobia developed for decades. Azerbaijan, which has completely annihilated the Armenian cultural heritage in Nakhichevan and in other parts of the historical homeland of the Armenian people, now throughout the ongoing military aggression against Artsakh is trying to deprive Armenians of Artsakh of their homeland and historical memory".[10] They also stated that "With these actions Azerbaijan replicates the behavior of its newly acquired allies, infamous international terrorist organizations that are responsible for the destruction of numerous historical-cultural monuments in the Middle East".[7] Artsrun Hovhannisyan, spokesman of the defence ministry of Armenia, blamed the shelling on "enemy Azerbaijan".[1]

According to Armenpress, Pargev Martirosyan, the bishop of the Diocese of Artsakh of which the cathedral is the episcopal see, compared the shelling with the actions of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, saying "They are bombarding our spiritual values, when we are restoring and preserving mosques".[11][5] Another priest at the cathedral said "I feel the pain that the walls of our beautiful cathedral are destroyed. I feel the pain that today the world does not react to what's happening here and that our boys are dying defending our Motherland".[5]

After the shelling, the Armenian cellist Sevak Avanesyan playing the damaged building. He played the piece "Stork" (Armenian: Krunk) by the Armenian composer Komitas, who was a victim of the Armenian Genocide.[5][12] The music video was posted on October 12 on Armenia’s official Twitter account, which according to Al-Jazeera, was a message that the cathedral’s shelling by Azerbaijan was part and parcel of a centuries-old enmity of Turks towards Armenians.[12]

Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry officially denied involvement,[13] while the Azerbaijan state news agency claimed Armenia was behind the attack.[14]

In an interview with BBC News journalist Orla Guerin, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, denied the church was a military target for his forces and claimed that the shelling was "either it was a mistake of our artillery or it was a deliberate provocation by Armenians themselves".[15] Asked if the same mistake could have been made twice in one day, Aliyev said: "Why not? Have you seen the images of Azerbaijani mosques in the occupied territories? They're all destroyed. They keep pigs in our mosques. We do not attack civilians, unlike them."[15] He also mentioned the 2020 Ganja ballistic missile attacks, blaming Armenia and denying attacking civilians in the Siege of Stepanakert.[15]

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) wrote that they are "dismayed to learn that the Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was seriously damaged by fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, and calls for the safeguarding of places of worship and religious sites, particularly amid the current violence".[16]

American composer Daniel Decker, who had given a concert in the building in 2017, lamented the destruction of Facebook, saying "This breaks my heart!"[5]