Saving the cultural monuments located in the territories that will be conceded to Azerbaijan has been a source of concern. During a discussion held at the Media Center, the deputy minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sport, Narine Khachaturyan, said that approximately 5,000 monuments were inventoried in Artsakh, and there are photos of most of them. According to her, the fact-collecting and inventory mission was organized by the Ministry of Culture of Artsakh and the Research on Armenian Architecture NGO led by the late Samvel Karapetyan.
According to Khachaturyan, everything has been listed on paper, but the issue lies in how those monuments will be maintained.
The deputy minister said that there are no mechanisms in place that would guarantee the protection of Armenian cultural monuments in the territories that will be conceded to Azerbaijan. “There is nothing mentioned in the document that was signed, nor is there any legal act that mentioned the mechanisms, responsibilities of both sides, and rights. This is a confusing situation. How will people be evacuated? Who will compensate those people? What will be the fate of the cultural monuments that cannot be removed, especially since we have seen terrible precedents? The only thing that may keep our archenemies from barbarism and cultural vandalisms are the cultural conventions they have joined, but what convention… what are we talking about now? There are no guarantees in terms of security, and there is no mechanism to provide those guarantees.”
She said that a part of our homeland was given to the enemy, and they are the ones who are legally in control of those monuments. “Those monuments will be considered theirs. According to the conventions, Azerbaijan has a responsibility to maintain them, but those are things written on paper. Reality shows something different.”
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Gohar Hakobyan
