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The Church of Kish (Template:Lang-hy, St. Yeghishe Church;Template:Lang-az) is a former Armenian Apostolic Church and now a museum. It is located in the village of Kish at an altitude of 1,180 meters above sea level, approximately 5km north of Shaki, Azerbaijan.

Confusion of the toponym of Kish and Gis

The toponym of Kish and it's church have been identified with that of Gis since the 19th century. However, research has shown that the two locations are not the same. According to Movses Kaghankatvatsi, the settlement of Gis was situated "...in a swampy, salt-rich site..." However, Kish is in an area of wooded mountains. Therefore, the location of Gis that Movses Kaghankatvatsi referred to cannot be the Kish where this church is located . The location of Gis is believed to be the village of Bomen / Bum 60km to the south-east of Kish, in Gabala district, Uti (Utik) province.

Despite a lack of evidence, some Norwegian and Azerbaijani scholars continue to identify the church of Kish with that of Gis.

Today, media in Azerbaijan represents the Kish church as the first church built in Caucasian Albania and also the first church built in the Caucasus.

History of church

The origins of the town and founding of the church of St. Yeghishe are unclear. Some sources cite this church as the first church founded by St. Elisha the Apostle Without disputing pecularities in the plan of the church, as well as it's previous occupation, the current church is dated from the 12-13th centuries..

According to Georgian historgraphy, in the 10th century the population of Kish converted to the Georgian Orthodox Church. It is also alleged that between the 10th and 11th centuries, those very people built Sourb Astvatzatzin Church which later turned into the residence of the Georgian bishop, functioning till the 17th century.

Another record attests to the construction of the church as part of a monastery in 1244 by the Archbishop Serapheme, and it's later destruction during Agha Muhammad Khan's invasions.

In 1310, the Georgian Bishop Kyurile Donauri cites the church under the name of St. Astvatsatsin(Mother of God) and it's historical Armenian settlement.

In 1727 the Armenian population was oppressed by the khan, with some scattering, while others being forced to lose their religion. However, they maintained their Armenian names and continued to attend and venerate the monastery. When Russia came into control of this region many Armenians converts applied to restore their faiths.

In 1836 all active churches in this region that were not Georgian or Russian administered were incorporated into the Armenian Apostolic Church. The church was re-consecrated as part of an Armenian Apostolic monastery sometime before 1839, when the sanctuary is mentioned in connection with a robbery of its church objects.

19th century expansion

Starting with the second half of the 19th century the monastery and church saw much expansion and renovation. In the 1860's, the prior of the monastery, Gevorg Aramiants carried out some overhaul in Kish's Monastery. An Armenian inscription dated 1865 commemorated some of this restoration, but has since disappeared.

Attacks on the monastery

As an Armenian monastery in a Muslim village, there were special difficulties associated with the place. In 1885 some windows of the monastery were broken by locals in relation to a fight that had broken out. The year 1909 showed another example of intolerance towards the existence of an Armenian monastery in the village when the dome cross of the local sanctuary became a target of firing for some Muslims. Facing the protest raised by the Armenians, they promised to repair the leaning cross, otherwise bringing secular authorities to the conflict.

Place of pilgrimage

In the 19th century, the place was associated with St. Yeghishe and was a famous and sacred place of pilgrimage for the Armenians throughout Transcaucasia. They annually gathered there to celebrate Vardavar.

Kish and the Norwegians

In the 1990s Thor Heyerdahl developed a theory of the Black Sea origins of parts of the Scandinavian race. Based on similarities of names in Norse mythology and names in the Black Sea-region (e.g. Aesir and Azer / Azov, Odin and Udi) Heyerdahl claimed that the Udi ethnic minority in Azerbaijan was the descendants of the ancestors of the Scandinavians. He travelled to Azerbaijan on a number of occasions in the final two decades of his life and visited the Kish church. Heyerdahl's Odin theory was rejected by all serious historians, archaeologists, and linguists but was accepted within a section of Norway's state-run church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Norway.

Bjorn Wegge, the Director of Information for Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise, part of Normisyon - an organisation within the Church of Norway, initiated a 1997 album involving a Norwegian choir and Azeri musicians and singers. It featured a photograph of the Kish church on its cover. The belief in Heyerdahl's theory is explicitly stated in the choice of the album's title: "The Land We Came From", with the choir's leader stating that Azerbaijan was "a culture that may be our long-forgotten homeland".

In the late 1990s NHE initiated and organised restoration projects of a disused 19th-century Armenian church in the Udi-populated village of Nij, and the church in Kish. Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded both projects. Allegations of complicity with the Azerbaijan government in cultural cleansing and the re-writing of history have dogged both projects.

The Kish church project was also initiated by Bjorn Wegge, Storgfjell describes him as "the father of the project". The restoration of the Kish church was preceded by an archaeological excavation that was also run by NHE and paid for by Norway. The chief archaeologist was the Norwegian J. Bjørnar Storfjell. As a result of a visit to the church by Heyerdahl during the excavation, Storfjell was appointed by Heyerdahl to be the chief archaeologist on an archeological expedition to the Sea of Azov in 2001 to find evidence to back up Heyerdahl's Odin theory.

Excavations

In 2000-2003 the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a joint project between Baku State University for Architecture and Construction and the Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise for archeological excavation and restoration of the church of Kish. Dr. Vilayat Karimov of Baku's Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography served as the Director of Excavations, and the Archaeological Advisor for the project was J. Bjørnar Storfjell, who currently directs the Thor Heyerdahl Research Centre in Aylesbury, England. Radiocarbon analysis of various objects found on the site showed that the cultic site found beneath the altar of the church dates to about 3000 B.C., while the construction of the existing church building dates to about the 12th century (990-1160 A.D.).

References

1. Norwegian Human Enterprise News
2. Jalaliants, S., Journey to Great Armenia, Tpkhis, 1858, p. 370
3. Ulubabian, B., Verification of Certain Historical and Geographical Names, in "Banber Yerevani Hamalsarani," 1971, N 1, pp. 176-177 .
4. Movses Kaghankatvatsi, History of Aghvank, Yerevan, 1983, p. 95
5. ^ Karapetian, Samvel. Kish Village, Shaki District, Republic of Azerbaijan. Research on Armenian Architecture.
6. Kartapetian, Samvel (2001). Armenian Cultural Monuments in the region of Karabagh. Yerevan: RAA. p. 79. ISBN 5-8080-0468-3.
7. Mammadova, Gulchohra. "The Azerbaijan-Norwegian Kish Project: Progress Report." The History of Caucasus: Scientific Public Almanac 2(June 2002). p. 33-40.
8. Azerbaijan International Magazine - The Kish Church, Digging Up History, Norwegians Help Restore Ancient Church: An interview with J. Bjornar Storfjell
9. Interview with Russian Orthodox Baku and Caspian Bishop Alexander
10. "Meghu Hayastani" 1881, N 123, p. 1
11. Chubinashvili, G. N., The Architecture of Kakhet , Tbilisi, 1959, pp. 435-436
12. "Caucasian Calendar for 1852", Tiflis, 1851, p. 271 "Монастыр во имя Св. Апостола Егишея при селении Киш и Киш построен в 1244 г. по Р. Х. Архидиаконом Серафимом. Опустел во время нашествия Шаха Агамагмада".
13. Muradian, P., The Georgian Inscriptions of Armenia, Yerevan, 1977, p. 11
14. "Nor-Dar" 1889, N 208, p. 2
15. "Ararat," 1875, pp. 31-32
16. "Nor-Dar," 1885, N 135, p. 1
17. "Surhandak," 1909, N 16, p. 3
18. "Caucasian Calendar for 1886," Tiflis, 1885, p. 151
23. Azerbaijan International Magazine. About the Kish Church Reconstruction Project

• Churches in Azerbaijan
• Armenian Apostolic Churches
• History of Armenia