MONUMENTS IN GEORGIA AND WESTERN ARMENIA BECOME FEWER AND FEWER

Panorama.am
21:20 08/12/2007

"We conducted two trips to Georgia and three to Western Armenia," said
Samvel Karapetyan the director of the organization which investigates
Armenian architecture. According to him the mission of their trips
was to examine and find out Armenian monuments and to measure, to
photograph and copy Armenian lithographs.

S. Karapetyan said that they edit the results of the trips to publish
books on their basis. He said that next year they plan to publish a
book devoted to the investigations carried out in Akhalckha. "The most
interesting thing was that we found a khachkar from 1475 in Akhalckha,"
said S. Karapetyan.

He also said that their group found many khachkars in Akhalckha from
14th and 15th centuries, but the lithographs of which are unknown
and were never published. Unfortunately he mentioned that Armenian
churches and khachkars are being destroyed in Georgia. During the
reconstructions of the churches they destroy Armenian values.

S. Karapetyan said that they found an Armenian khachkar from 927
in the Western Armenia. And he continued saying that there are many
khachkars from 14-15 centuries in the Western Armenia.

The expert mentioned that "Mecopa" monastery is completely
destroyed. He said that they met the Kurd; he was in the group of
those who destroyed the monastery. The Kurd told the story of how
they destroyed it in order to find gold.

S. Karapetyan said that next year they will visit the places in
Western Armenia, Tbilisi and Arcakh which they did not manage to see
yet. He said that he saw 80% of Arcakh monuments, so next year he will
complete the list and publish a full volume of the monuments in Arcakh.