[7] Historians Stepanos Asoghik, Samuel of Ani, and Mkhitar of Ayrivank called the church a cathedral.

[7] It is a central planned domed tetraconch,[7] and imitates the seventh-century Church of Saint John, Mastara.

The 11th-century historian Stepanos Asoghik wrote that king Abas "built the holy cathedral of the city of Kars with blocks of stone, with sandstone blocks that were polished with steel: [the church] was surmounted by a circular dome whose ornamentation resembled the vault of heaven",[7] and that the cathedral was already completed at the time of Catholicos Ananias I (Anania of Mokk)'s tenure [943-967].

[7] Following the conquest of large parts of Armenia, including Kars, by the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century the church was converted into a mosque in 1579[1] by Mustafa Pasha.

The Suleyman Efendi mosque mentioned by the 17th century Turkish traveler Evliya Çelebi is assumed to be the Kars cathedral.

The cathedral ceased to function as a church and briefly operated as a mosque "but soon thereafter the Kemalist government put it up for sale.

[17] According to S. Peter Cowe, as of 1998, "the original high Armenian bema with the tall 19th century Russian iconostasis [were] still in place.

"[18] In a 2005 interview Kars Mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu (tur) stated about plans to restore the cathedral and added that after renovation a "cultural center or museum would be much more appropriate.

"[1] On July 22, 2022 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan posted a picture of the mosque on his Instagram page with the caption "hayırlı cumalar" (have a good Friday).