The Minister of Education, Science, and Culture of Artsakh, Lusine Gharakhanyan, said in a press conference during the ‘Endangered Heritage of Artsakh: A Challenge Hub’ conference at Matenadaran that Azerbaijan pursues an institutional policy of cultural heritage destruction and falsification.
She presented several numbers, noting that at the moment, the fate of about 2,000 architectural and historical monuments under the control of the enemy is under threat: reserves, monuments, 13 monastic complexes, 122 churches, 52 fortresses, 523 cross stones, 4 chapels, etc.
“127 school libraries consisting of 617,000 books remained in occupied territories, as well as three regional libraries with 68,398 books, 10 state and 2 private museums, in the main and scientific auxiliary fund that kept around 20,345 exhibits, including the Artur Mkrtchyan Museum in Hadrut, where there were 7,680 exhibits, Artur Mkrtchyan’s personal belongings, and the Khanperyants Museum in Mets Tagher, which contains 2,195 exhibits,” she emphasized.
The minister noted that the history museum of Shushi, the Geological Museum after Professor Gabrielyan, the State Museum of Fine Arts, among other museums and values, also remained in territories under Azerbaijani control.
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RA Deputy Minister of ESCS Ara Khzmalyan, Minister of Education and Science of Artsakh Lusine Gharakhanyan and head of the ‘ICOMOS Armenia’ center Gagik Gyurjyan give a press conference on the topic of ‘Artsakh’s Endangered Heritage: A Challenge Hub’ in Matenadaran
The minister added that they were able to remove some of the collections from Shushi during the war, but the Photo gallery, History museum, and the Carpet museum’s collection stayed behind. “The Tigranakert State Archaeological Museum-Reserve is also under enemy control. The Hunot Canyon remains in the neutral zone, and we do not know yet whether it will be considered ours. The palace in Togh is also a historical and cultural reserve, and the reception of Melik Yega was restored there. During the excavations in the palace area, many valuable exhibits were found, which all remained there.
There are campaigns in two directions from Azerbaijan. One is to simply destroy the monuments when monuments of strong civilizational value are endangered. The second is that Azerbaijan presents our monuments as Albanian. I am convinced that we have good scientific and historical materials that must be shared eloquently on all information platforms so that we can save those monuments from danger,” Lusine Gharakhanyan said.
The minister also said, “Independent experts from UNESCO were also supposed to visit Artsakh on December 21st for monitoring activities, but Azerbaijan prevented their visit.”
Gohar Hakobyan
