During and after the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire and the loss of their homelands about 50,000 Armenians found refuge in Iran . After the Sovietization of Armenia in 1920 and the purges under Joseph Stalin , more refugees from Armenia crossed the border to Iran , among the Nikolai Lauri from Nagorno-Karabakh , the architect of the church . So the number of Armenians – in their majority members of the Armenian Apostolic Church – in the Iranian capital increased significantly and the need to build a new church arose . On 17 April 1937 , a meeting was held with the presence of Armenian architects , and Nikolai Lauri was asked to present a plan to build a church based on a budget of 60,000 tomans . However , Nikolai Lauri died in 1939 , and the plan was realized by Nikolai Markov . Roman Isayan ( called Isayev in Russia ) financed the construction of the church , which costed 100,000 tomans . Construction works began on 17 April 1938 with the participation of a large number of Armenians and clergy of the churches in Tehran . The church was completed in 1938 and christened in 1945 by Karekin I , Catholicos of Cilicia , as Church of Holy Mary
Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
Holy Mother of God Church, Tehran