On May 4, the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia hosted a discussion entitled “Armenian Historical and Cultural Values in Neighboring Countries and in the Near Diaspora”. The discussion featured a keynote speech by Director of the Foundation Studying Armenian Architecture, monument expert Samuel Garabedian, reports the office of RA Ministry of Diaspora.
Greeting the guests, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hagopian noted the following: “Samuel Garabedian needs no introduction. He started actively pursuing his career a couple of years after Armenia’s declaration of independence, and as a result of his efforts, we Armenians got to know and learned about the old and new Armenian historical and cultural values that exist in different countries and particularly in our region. Samuel Garabedian has been interested in the origin and current state of Armenian monuments since he was little, and his patriotic and consistent activities have helped him create books of encyclopedic significance.”
The Minister called on the attending Diaspora Armenians to think about how they can help preserve Armenian monuments located in their respective countries of residence. “We have compiled and integrated Armenian Genocide monuments and cross-stones of the world in one book, but there is a need to provide descriptions for all the churches and monuments,” the Minister of Diaspora noted.
Afterwards, Samuel Garabedian presented the story behind the creation of the Foundation Studying Armenian Architecture, the activities that it has carried out and the books that it has published.
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Talking about the multilingual book entitled “Azerbaijan Outside of Civilization”, the speaker drew the attendees’ attention to the political significance and importance o the book, which contains materials devoted to 120 monuments created between the 4th and 20th centuries.
The monument expert noted that he had taken most of the photos in the book. Some of them had been taken from the sky, and some photos were transferred by foreigners.
Samuel Garabedian emphasized that foreign researchers were interested in Armenian monuments located in the modern-day territory of Azerbaijan. “A Scottish researcher had a three-week visa, but didn’t have the opportunity to work in Nakhichevan since the people in Nakhichevan made him understand that he had to leave. ,” Garabedian noted.
The monument expert also touched upon Armenian monuments located in other countries of the region, as well as India, the Near East and the Middle East.
Samuel Garabedian answered questions from the attending students and Diaspora Armenian intellectuals, after which the attendees watched Garabedian’s film devoted to Armenian monuments.