Expert: Azerbaijan destroys Artsakh’s cultural heritage on Aliyev’s order

Azerbaijan is destroying Armenian cultural heritage in Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) on the order of the country’s president, exert on Azerbaijan Hovik Avanesov, head of the Center of Caucasian Studies at Mesrop Mashtots University, said in an interview with Panorama.am on Wednesday.

He recalled that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ordered the erasure of inscriptions from Armenian churches and cross-stones during his regular visit to one of the villages of the Baku-occupied Hadrut district of Artsakh.

Avanesov believes the only thing that can be done to preserve Artsakh’s cultural heritage is to talk about it as much as possible.

“We have a colossal literature and we should talk about our heritage every single day, rather than after the destruction of a church or a monument,” he stated.

The expert highlighted the importance of exhibitions and popularization of Artsakh’s heritage as one of the effective mechanisms to counter the destruction of Armenian monuments by Azerbaijan.

“We should never talk about Artsakh as a thing of the past. For me, as an Artsakh citizen, the chapter of Artsakh is not closed. In my professional activity I am doing my best to keep the issue of Artsakh high on the agenda,” Avanesov said.

He clamed the mistakes made over 30 years and the failure to learn lessons from history were to blame for the current situation.

The expert informed that the Center of Caucasian Studies continued its activities in Yerevan on a voluntary basis. Avanesov also insisted on the functioning of Artsakh’s state institutions in Armenia.