GOAL OF ARCHEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS IMPLEMENTED IN ARTSAKH IS RE-SETTLEMENT OF LIBERATED TERRITORIES WITH ARMENIANS AND KEEPING THEM ARMENIAN
Noyan Tapan
Armenians Today
Apr 05 2006
YEREVAN, APTIL 5, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The goal of the
archeological excavations implemented during the last one year in
three places of Artsakh, in historic Tigranakert (Martakert region), in
Shushi and at the Handaberd monastic complex (the region of Karvajar)
is to again remind the authorities of Armenia that towards those
territories “the Armenian people has a historic national obligation
to make them Armenian, and if it doesn’t, the history will condemn
us.” Vigen Arabian, the Executive Director of the U.S. branch of the
“Yerkir” Union of NGOs’ for Repatriation and Settlement, stated about
this at the April 4 opening ceremony of the “Culture of Borders”
archeological researches’ exhibition at the “Narekatsi” cultural
center. Results of joint archeological excavations in the liberated
territories of Artsakh of the “Yerkir” union and “Kenats Tsar” cultural
reseaches center are presented at the exhibiton. According to Vigen
Arabian, the goal of those excavations is one: “re-settlement of the
liberated, especially strategic bordering territories of the Fatherland
with Armenians and keeping them Armenian.” The most part of them,
including the NK Autonomous Region, was annexed to Azerbaijan during
the last 80 years, as a consequence of what not only the number of the
Armenian inhabitation reduced, but the centuries-old Armenian culture
existed in them was destroyed. “We came to implement a propaganda and
educational work in general for an Armenian, particularly, for our
state,” Vigen Arabian emphasized. He is sure that one liberates a land
not only by fighting: that war will be valued only at the time when
Armenian will live in those territories. V.Arabian also mentioned that
since 1994 if the war has not been finished, then it has been stopped,
“but we were not able to solve that problem, we gave a huge number
of victims and economic losses for those territories.” “Our people
paid the price of those territories but they are less populated today:
there is a problem of re-populating the solution of which is, in fact,
left for public organizations. And the state has no clear policy
of re-populating and keeping them Armenian yet,” he stated. Vigen
Arabian is sure that “we’ll not historically be the owners of those
territories for a long time as they are empty.”