on the same day. Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence has denied the shelling of the cathedral by stating that "destruction of the church in Shusha has nothing to do with the activities of the Army of Azerbaijan" The House of Culture was also badly damaged in the fighting. On November 8, 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced that the Azerbaijani army took control of the city of Shusha. The next day, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defence released a video from the city, confirming full Azerbaijani control. On the same day, Artsakh authorities confirmed that they had lost control of Shusha. A ceasefire signed two days later reaffirmed Azerbaijan's gains, resulting in the city staying under its control. The Armenian government and the Armenian Apostolic Church subsequently claimed that Azerbaijani soldiers had vandalised Armenian churches and cultural landmarks, including Ghazanchetsots Cathedral and Kanach Zham, which was supported by reports from FreedomHouse and CaucasusHeritageWatch. Azerbaijani officials claimed that the Mamayi Mosque and a nearby fountain was vandalised by the Armenians forces. Culture Shusha contains both Armenian and Azerbaijani cultural monuments, while the surrounding territories also include many ancient Armenian villages. Shusha is often considered the cradle of Azerbaijan's music and poetry and one of the leading centres of the Azerbaijani culture, having been declared the cultural capital of Azerbaijan in January 2021. The city is particularly renowned for its traditional Azerbaijani genre of vocal and instrumental arts called mugham. For the Azerbaijanis, Shusha is the "conservatoire of the Caucasus". Khurshidbanu Natavan, Azerbaijan's most famous woman poet, composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov, opera singer Bulbul and one of Azerbaijan's first twentieth-century novelists, Yusif Vezir Chemenzeminli, were born here. Molla Panah Vagif, a prominent Azerbaijani poet and vizier of the Karabakh khanate, lived and died in Shusha. Vagif Poetry Days were held in Shusha annually since 1982. The tradition was resumed in 2021. Shusha is also a historical Armenian religious and cultural center. The Armenian population of the town historically had four main churches, each named after the place of origin of the Armenian inhabitants: Ghazanchetsots (after Qazançı; officially named Holy Savior Cathedral), Aguletsos Holy Mother of God Church (after Agulis), Meghretsots Holy Mother of God Church (after Meghri), and Gharabakhtsots (after the region of Karabakh; the church is better known as Kanach Zham). Shusha was also home to a monastery complex called Kusanats Vank ("Virgins' Monastery") or Anapat Kusanats ("Virgins' Hermitage")․ In 1989, Ghazanchetsots Cathedral was