SHUSHI FOUNDATION EXPECTS DONATIONS FROM ARMENIANS TO RESTORE TOWN’S MONUMENTS

Armenpress
May 23 2006

YEREVAN, MAY 23, ARMENPRESS: The Shushi Foundation and the Haypost
company (Armenian Post) have signed an agreement to help efforts to
restore the town of Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh and its cultural and
historical monuments. Under this agreement every Armenian can transfer
a symbolic sum of 500 Drams (a little more than one US Dollar) to the
Foundation’s account, approving that way the Foundation’s initiative.

Bakur Karapetian, an author who is also the manager of the Foundation,
said his Foundation, established in 2000, has registered and
mapped around 525 monuments in the town and its outskirts. He
said architects have measured about 220 buildings dating back to
18 and 19 centuries. Karapetian said Shushi is the only Armenian
town that has been preserved since the 19-th century and therefore,
‘its atmosphere and colors should be preserved,’ which in turn could
promote development of tourism in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Karapetian went on to say that Shushi can become at the same time a
place where Christian and Muslim civilizations and cultures can meet,
because Shushi was also a place where the Muslim Shia culture met
with Christian culture. He said one of the town’s mosques was already
repaired. Karapetian said his Foundation wants also to set up a center
to study the history of the struggle for Karabakh independence. The
Foundation was able to materialize part of its ideas only thanks
to donations.

Under the agreement Haypost offices will accept transfers and send
them on the Foundation’s account once in a fortnight. Names of people
donating their 500 drams will be placed on the Foundation’s website.

Armenians in Diaspora can also join the initiative.

They can find information how to do it by visiting