Poor cultural heritage preservation policy in Armenia – expert

As regards preservation of panhuman values, UNESCO’s activities have been reduced to a minimum, expert in Armenian studies Argam Aivazyan told reporters on Tuesday as he spoke of his expectations about the Third International Conference “Cultural Policy and Policy for Culture” in Yerevan.

Despite numerous similar conference, more and more cases of vandalism against cultural values are being registered.

Speaking of Armenian cultural values, Mr Aivazyan pointed out a poor policy of cultural heritage preservation in the country.

There are about 24,000 cultural monuments in Armenia, with 15,000 without relevant status. Most of the monuments are in Western Armenia, and 97%-98% of 170,000-180,000 have been destroyed.

“Being owners of such cultural values we have no list of the monuments created by the Armenian people or of the monuments destroyed both in Armenia and throughout the world,” Mr Aivazyan said.

All the Armenian monuments - 27,000 - have been destroyed in Azerbaijan and Nakhijevan.

“What has been preserved, including the monuments in Western Armenia, is in danger. And the preserved monuments will be ruined in 25 years,” the expert said.

Mr Aivazyan also points out cases of “Georgianizing” Armenian churches in Georgia.

“Iran is the only regional state that has properly been preserving and restoring Armenian monuments since the 1960s,” he said.