To begin with, the Hereti and the Albanian kingdom of Sheki are two historical names for the same state. Since the Albanians and Georgians were fraternal peoples and fellow believers, there were no clear "ethnic borders" between them. As there were no borders between the fraternal Georgian and Abkhaz peoples. The Abkhazian kingdom, at one time, was called Western Georgia with the capital in Kutaisi. Therefore, it is logical that architectural monuments in the North-West of Azerbaijan are simultaneously called both Georgian and Albanian - there is no contradiction in this.

Unfortunately, the majority of the Albanian heritage was “appropriated” by Armenian falsifiers, and they would consider these churches to be “Armenian”. They did not succeed in completely appropriating the temples in the Sheki-Zakatala zone as well as in Karabakh only because of the small number of “hay” immigrants here. But at the same time, Armenian nationalists and provocateurs use these churches and invented fakes regarding these temples to incite conflicts between Georgia and Azerbaijan.

One monument is the church in Zakatala, which was renovated and restored during the years of the Russian Empire on the site of an ancient Albanian-Georgian temple. Its parishioners were both soldiers of units of the Russian army stationed here, and Orthodox Georgians living in Zakatala (most of the Ingilo Georgians in Zakatala were Muslims).

By the way, from a mixed Russian-Georgian Orthodox family from Zakatala comes the comrade-in-arms of the prominent secular figure of Georgian origin Lavrenti Beria - Vsevolod Merkulov, his father was Russian, his mother was Georgian and they were just parishioners of the church in Zakatala. Unfortunately, in many respects, the intrigues of the famous Armenian nationalist Anastas Mikoyan in 1953, Lavrenti Beria and his associates, including the Minister of State Control of the USSR Vsevolod Merkulov, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan Mir Jafar Bagirov and a number of other figures were removed from power and illegally repressed. It is symbolic that at about the same time the church in Zakatala was closed. The same Anastas Mikoyan together with Khrushchev then organized mass persecution of the Orthodox Church and the closure of churches throughout the USSR.

Azerbaijan carefully treats the Christian heritage on its territory. In Kakhi, for example, the Church of St. George and the Kurmukhi Church was restored. They act as cathedral churches of the Kakhi and Kurmukhi dioceses of the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Today, there are many more Orthodox Christians in Kakh among the Ingilo Georgians than in Zakatala (where the living Georgians are mostly Muslims). If there was an equally large Orthodox community in Zakatala, then the temple would have been restored and operated long ago.

Despite the small size of the Orthodox community, the temple in Zakatala will soon be restored. Moreover, this issue was raised more and more loudly by the public of the city - and Muslims by religion! We give an excerpt from the article “The ancient temple in the territory of Zakatala, like many others in northwestern Azerbaijan, remains in an abandoned state, but this does not concern the responsible structures.” (https://az.sputniknews.ru/photo/20171203/413019769/albanskaja-cerkov-hram-pamjatnik-istorii.html):

“The ancient Albanian church in the center of Zakatala, presumably dating back to the 5th-6th centuries, is an invaluable legacy inherited from our ancestors. But are we worthy of such an inheritance?

According to the stories of local researchers, in the middle of the 19th century the church, which had already been abandoned and dilapidated, was rebuilt into an Orthodox church, where services were held and Russian officers of the Zakatala garrison prayed. After the establishment of Soviet power, the church was empty for a long time. After several decades, the temple was revived again - students of the Agricultural College were allowed to live in the temple building. And after them, several Armenian families temporarily settled in the temple.

For 55 years, Dilbar Omarova has been living in a house located next to an ancient temple. In an interview with the regional correspondent of Sputnik Azerbaijan, she said that after the start of the Karabakh events, the temple was empty: "At that time, the Armenians and I lived together. They did not want to leave here. Their own Armenians told them:" You became a victim of Karabakh".

Today, an elderly woman is ashamed of the fact that the ancient monument remains abandoned, awkward in front of tourists who often come to see the temple. "What do they think about us when they see what condition this monument is in? I am not a responsible person, but I am a citizen of this country. All of this worries me, but the authorities do not care about the problem at all," says Dilbar Omarova.

She says that she hoped that after the arrival of the head of the Office of All Muslims of the Caucasus Haji Allahshukur Pashazade in Zakatala, the temple would be restored.

“But, apparently, the fate of the building does not bother anyone. Once a month they come, sweep it and leave,” the woman resents.

According to her, earlier a large stone with inscriptions stood near the temple, but when the Armenians left, they took it with them.”

As can be seen from the material, local residents, Azerbaijanis are very worried about the fate of the temple in Zagatala and require its restoration. Therefore, what has recently been invented by the well-known provocateur and false human rights activist Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, who in Georgia is openly working for Yerevan and is trying, on instructions from Armenia, to quarrel the Georgian and Azerbaijani peoples is a blatant lie. This provocation, in particular, was reported by the “New Era” publication in the material “Subversive Activities of Armenian Special Services in Georgia - Exposure”:

“The little-known Armenian agent in Georgia, Nikoloz Mzhavanadze, the head of the pro-Armenian “association” mentioned above, again appeared on the pages of the Armenian media this time as a “louder sensation”, allegedly the rights of ethnic Georgians in Azerbaijan are violated and all that. On the site of one of the Armenian radio stations, fake material about this was invented by the Armenian special services in Georgian. The Armenian fake was decorated with an unprofessional collage, which consisted of some dilapidated temple or the remains of some old building next to the self-portrait of pale Nikoloz. Another room was also shown on the collage, and the Armenian concoction claimed that it was supposedly a Georgian church, which was turned into a toilet. Even the most uneducated person living in Azerbaijan and Georgia is well aware that ethnic Georgians living in Zakatala district are 99% Muslims, and the entire population of this part of Azerbaijan is 99% Muslim. And the ancient buildings, fortress walls, watchtowers, churches of different periods of history, caravanserais, and mosques that survived are protected by the Azerbaijan state, which is recognized throughout the world as one of the most tolerant, where representatives of dozens of peoples and faiths live for centuries peace and harmony while preserving their culture and identity, including ethnic Georgians-Ingilos…"

It is also necessary to pay attention to the fact that Armenian falsifiers did not abandon attempts to appropriate the church in Zagatala as “Armenian”. In the church, especially in Soviet times, Armenian families were settled.

By the way, where is this story with the “toilet in the temple” so provocatively distorted by Mzhavanadze? Is it not according to the recollections of Armenians who lived in the temple and used the shrine for “household purposes”? Why, then, Mzhavanadze will not take an interest in how “reverent” the Armenians who lived in the Zagatala Church once belonged to the Orthodox shrine?

Another fact mentioned in the above article in the publication “Sputnik” is “a large stone with inscriptions,” which the Armenians brought with them when they settled in an Orthodox church, albeit an abandoned one. That is, the “appropriation” of the shrine was specially prepared even in those distant Soviet atheistic times. A stone with allegedly “Armenian” inscriptions was specially dragged.

Then, realizing that without their presence, the fake could be investigated and exposed, the Armenians leaving Zagatala took the “ancient artifact” with them. And who knows, perhaps this mysterious wandering “ancient stone with inscriptions” will soon be discovered near one of those 465 Georgian churches in Georgia, which Armenian nationalists claim to be.

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