How did we give the museums of Shushi to the enemy? Taguhi Tovmasyan, Chair of the NA Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs, addressed this question to the participants of the discussion on “Protection of Armenian Historical, Cultural and Religious Heritage in the Regions under Azerbaijani Control of the Artsakh Republic” on Thursday.
The Minister of Education and Science of Artsakh, Lusine Gharakhanyan, did not agree with the word “give.” “There could be no talk of evacuating cultural heritage from Hadrut; it was a blitzkrieg. It was a situation that military figures would comment on well. On October 19, we evacuated the most valuable fund of the Stepanakert Museum of History and Geography. The building was in a crisis. If a rocket exploded nearby, the building would have collapsed completely.
The Tigranakert Museum was also evacuated. On October 30, Vardan Astsatryan called and expressed a desire to evacuate the Shushi Carpet Museum with the Minister of Economy and Minister of Territorial Administration. Unfortunately, only the carpet museum exhibit was evacuated. I do not want anyone to try to find culprits here, especially those who did not have the 44-day war on their backs. Let us not try to talk about values here. Yes, there was a shortcoming, there was panic. But you can’t say…. ” Armenia MP Lilit Galstyan said, “It is excluded that there are people in the Armenian reality who liked the 44-day war. Maybe that was a mistake.”
According to Minister Gharakhanyan, there was incorrect information in connection with which the evacuation of Shushi’s valuables was connected. “The most valuable exhibits were carefully packed and placed in bomb shelters. But on October 30, it was already very dangerous to send people there. The carpets of Artsakh were also evacuated in very dangerous conditions. We could have had human casualties. We evacuated the Berdzor Museum of History and Geography, and the khachkars of the Kashatagh region.”
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The Minister mentioned that the mention of the khachkars registered in the PACE resolution is considered a success, but they consider the words ‘Ghazanchi’ and ‘Shusha,’ which were included in the resolution, to be a mistake. “We are taking steps to clear up those errors in the resolution.” Lusine Gharakhanyan enumerated the valuables we left behind to the Azerbaijanis. “We have 2,000 monuments in the occupied territories, 122 churches, 13 monastic complexes, 52 castles, 536 khachkars, 20,895 exhibits, and 617,000 books and literature. We have left a legacy of civilization, which is the heritage of mankind, the Cave of Azokh, and Tigranakert. In general, Artsakh is a heritage site of civilization. Together with the Russian peacekeepers, we tried to bring the property of the Shushi Gallery hidden in the bomb shelters after November 17. We have also tried the exchange mechanism. We have works by Azerbaijani artists since the first war, which we kept, but these people do not appreciate their culture. Paintings by Azerbaijani artists remain with us, but the barter mechanism does not work. Now we are dealing with extremely aggressive neighbors who are uninformed and very difficult to communicate with.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
