NEW INITIATIVE TO RESTORE SHUSHI

Azg/arm
23 Nov 04

Even after more than 12 years of its liberation Shushi makes bitter
impression on the visitors. No serious work on rehabilitation and
restoration has been done here. Even if some people come to dwell in
the city, they do it for they have no other place to go.

Recently, receiving AGBU delegation, Arkady Ghukasian, NKR President,
stated that “Karabakh has a budget amounting to 27 million and
canâ~@~Yt restore Shushi alone, as $100 million are required for that.”

Though Shushi Fund was founded in 2000, it implemented no serious
programs during the 4 years of its activities. Sevak Artsruni was
appointed the executive director (also president of Yerkir Union)
of the fund. The honorable chairman of Shushi Fund is Arkady
Ghukasian. The Board of the co-chairs includes Armen Sargsian,
NKR Culture Minister, his holiness archbishop Pargev, leader of
Artsakhâ~@~Ys Diocese and Bakur Karapetian, publicist.

“I suggested to enlarge the board of the co-chairs by including
Diaspora representatives. Greguar Galust, representative of the
Lebanese Armenian Catholic community was included in the board of the
co-chairs and immediately initiated the first stage of the activities
for restoring Shushi,” Artsruni says.

It is envisaged to stop all the works in Shushi in the first stage
and concentrate on elaborating prospective programs, i.e. to study
Sushiâ~@~Ys historical-cultural heritage, to prove that Shushi is an
ancient center of the Armenian culture and “to make this proof the
basic capital for restoration.”

Hamlet Petrosian, Doctor of Archeology, and Bakur Karapetian completed
the list of the cityâ~@~Ys historical-cultural monuments. “The
specialists studied about 180 buildings and elaborated the cityâ~@~Ys
restoration plan. 5 districts of the city were separated and at
present, we look for financial sources to organize international
architectural contests for the restoration of these districts.
The archeological excavations will begin in March of 2005, while in
the autumn of the same year a scientific conference will be held
“where we will have the opportunity to say what we have in Shushi
and what kind of plans we can have in the future,” they say. This
is the first stage of the activities that are fully sponsored by the
Lebanese Armenian Catholic Community.

The works of the cityâ~@~Ys restoration are envisaged to begin in the
second stage. Contests will be announced for the plans and foreign
architects will be invited to participate in the restoration of Shushi.

By Tatoul Hakobian

–Boundary_(ID_wWj2yCSGP4Ra5U46rVtmAA)–