 Lavrenti Barseghian wrote in 2003 that the damage from the earthquake was so great that the entire building would collapse unless strengthened and restored.Explosions in a quarry on the Armenian side of the border, across the Akhurian River, reportedly caused some damage to the cathedral in the early 2000s.In mid-June 2001 an "ear-splitting explosion rocked the site just as a group of Armenian Americans had gathered to pray at the cathedral."