| Church of Saint Elisæus / Yeghishe | |
| Native Name: | udi|Ĭvĕl Yeliseyi s'iyen C'otari Gergeś |
| Map Type: | Azerbaijan |
| Map Size: | 275 |
| Geo: | 40.945°N 47.6692°W |
| Religious Affiliation: | Albanian-Udi religious community of Azerbaijan, formerly Armenian Apostolic Church |
| Region: | Qabala |
| Architecture: | yes |
| Year Completed: | 1823 |
| Length: | 18.14 |
| Width: | 11.17 |
Saint Elisæus Church or Jotaari Church (az|Cotaari məbədi, after the quarter) is a former Armenian church, now used by Albanian-Udi religious community of Azerbaijan, located on the municipality of Nij in the Qabala region of Azerbaijan.
The church was built in 1823 by a local Udi priest Astvatzatur Jotaniants on the gravesite and chapel of Vlas the Martyr, a disciple of Saint Elysaeus.[1] [2] It was repaired in 1879 by locals.[3]
It was repaired again in 2004 as part of a project financed by Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise. The destruction during that renovation of Armenian inscriptions associated with the church prompted a protest by Norway's ambassador to Azerbaijan, Steinar Gil,[4] who refused to attend the reopening of the monument and compared the erasing to the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamyan. The Norwegian Embassy in Baku described the destruction as an "act of vandalism". Three inscriptions on the walls of the church were destroyed, including two on the lintel and tympanum of the south entrance; Armenian inscriptions on the gravestones that surrounded the church were also erased.[5] The destruction of the inscriptions, together with Azerbaijan's labeling of the church as "Albanian" and its denial that the church had an Armenian identity, has been described as being part of a wider "cultural genocide against Armenian monuments in Azerbaijan".[6]
In May 2018, in a report submitted to the UN General Assembly by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations, the erasing of the Armenian inscriptions at Nij was cited as evidence that "all restoration work of Christian architectural monuments in Azerbaijan was carried out in such a way as to destroy the traces of Armenian architecture, as well as the Armenian inscriptions".[7]
The National Archives of Armenia holds several documents pertaining to the priests who once served in church:
Formerly a church consecrated according to the Armenian Apostolic rite, the building now serves as main spiritual and cultural center of Nij inhabitants.[12]