On Thursday, Taguhi Tovmasyan, Chair of the NA Committee on Human Rights Protection and Public Affairs, initiated a discussion on “Protection of the Armenian Historical, Cultural, and Religious Heritage in the Azerbaijani-Controlled Areas of the Artsakh Republic.” Davit Nahapetyan, a member of the Artsakh Central Bank Board, presented why it was not possible to evacuate the entire heritage.
“We have evacuated most of the museum’s valuables. There were commemorative coins issued by the Central Bank. There were also numismatic valuables. We evacuated it at the end of October and formed a headquarters during the war. We have evacuated more than 4,000 numismatic artifacts and most of the exhibits. Of course, some specimens remain. Shushi was not safe at that time, and our employees who were there left their personal belongings, but were busy evacuating the museum.”
Lusine Gasparyan, the director of “Shushi City Museums” SNCO, said that it is very easy to talk about the evacuated values and try to find the culprits. “Most of the 26 employees of the 4 museums were women and girls who were evacuated to Yerevan with their children during the first and second days of the war, while the men were in positions. In fact, the museum was left entirely to me. Imagine how a woman could transport the ores from the geological museum on her own during intensive shelling. I asked for a Kamaz so we could transport them in buckets to the mineral museum. We hid the exhibits in the bomb shelters in Shushi, but no one could imagine that Shushi would fall. If anyone knew, they should have said something. I myself moved my property and belongings to the bomb shelters in Shushi, which were insured against any kind of bombing. Imagine what we went through. If I am guilty of not imagining that Shushi would fall… We did our job properly. Imagine how far the Geology Museum is from the Shushi Museum of Fine Arts. A man saw me in Shushi, he said, ‘Aren’t you afraid? The saboteurs are in Shushi, what are you doing?’
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I and sculptor Armen Petrosyan carried the minerals from the Gabrielyants Museum in buckets on our own. I managed to take pictures of what I put in what box. The fact that they were not evacuated from Shushi… no one could have imagined. The whole geology fund was evacuated, but to Shushi.”
Hripsime Jebejyan
