TREASURES OF MATENADARAN UNDER THREAT
By Karine Danielian
AZG Armenian Daily
18/04/200
The agreement signed between the Armenian "Matenadaran" Institute
of Ancient Manuscripts and the USA Saint John Univiersity’s "Hill"
Museum-Library was a shock for the Armenian intellectual public.
Armenian historians and culture scientists declare that the agreement
was signed in secret and is a part of a conspiracy against Armenian
culture and statehood.
According to the agreement all the culture heritage, all the materials
stored at the Matenadaran Institute, is to be photocopied, scanned
and sent to… the United States. Rumors say that all this took only
5-6 million dollars from the Hill museum.
The Armenian scientists are not against scanning the manuscripts and
having their digital versions. To their opinion, having a clone of
Matenadaran in a foreign state is unacceptable.
Their anxiety is explained by the following arguments.
Only 900 of the 14000 manuscripts stored at Matenadaran are thoroughly
studied, and no one knows for sure what treasures can still be found
there. The agreement between Matenadaran and the Hill museum deprives
the Armenian scientists of the opportunity to study the history and
culture of their own nation.
Preserving the manuscripts’ copyright after Matenadaran is ridiculous,
as the mechanisms of copyright law enforcement in the sphere of
e-content are not elaborated yet. "The agreement must be nullified,
as the biggest center of Armenian studies cannot be transported to
the USA," they say.