00:03Azerbaijan's Udi Christians continue their centuries old tradition of pilgrimage and prayer at Karabakh's historic Christian sites.
00:33The Udi community is an indigenous, predominantly Christian ethnic group in Azerbaijan.
00:40Gangesar's main church was built between 1216 and 1238 under Prince Hasan Jalal Dawla.
00:48Azerbaijan associates this monastery with the Caucasian-Albanian Christian tradition,
00:54while Armenia identifies it with the Armenian Apostolic Church.
00:58The monastery is among several historic Christian sites in the region that Azerbaijan says it is working to preserve and
01:07restore.
01:08Azerbaijan is a secular country where the overwhelming majority of population is Muslim,
01:14but Christians, Jews and other religious communities have also formed part of its religious and cultural landscape.
01:22For the Udi pilgrims, returning to Gangesar is also about restoring a historic connection.
01:28The preservation and identity of these sites remain part of a wider debate over the region's past.
01:35Saeeder Stamma, Euronews.
