WE HAVE LIBERATED OUR HOUSE
ANAHIT YESAYAN

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on May 09, 2008
Armenia

But to what extent do we realize it?

Interview with SAMVEL KARAPETYAN, Head of the Armenian office of the
Center of Studies of Architectural Monuments in Armenia

`Due to the power of spirit and arms, we liberated Shoushi 16 years
ago, and the town is now viewed as a symbol of victory. However, apart
from being a symbol of victory, Shoushi also used to be a large
cultural center. To what extent are these two factors appreciated now?’

`There was a period in the 19th century when the population of Shoushi
exceeded the population of Yerevan by 1/3. That’s to say, the town
really had the largest Armenian population in the territory which
historically belonged to Armenia and was now under the Russian
protectorate. It had everything: a theatre, printing-houses and
libraries. Naturally, investments were being made in such a town, as it
is done in Yerevan now.

Tiflis had a larger population of Armenians in comparison with Shoushi,
but it was not an Armenian town. There were simply a lot of Armenians
here. And those who made their investments in Tiflis were devoid of the
realization of the fact that they weren’t making their investments on
the Armenian land. The same can be said about Baku.

Shoushi prospered, and I don’t know which of the two towns was the
`Paris’ of the Caucasus in that period.

It had a population of around 45 thousand. In the 19th century the
sects began penetrating into Shoushi, as they do in Yerevan now, and
our church was not the defender of its flock, just the same way as it
isn’t now.

Let me bring a simple example. According to written records (`Pigeon of
Masis’, 1867) the history of the Armenian Church was taught in the
Russian language in the Armenian schools of Shoushi. The local
population asked the Catholicos to intervene and settle the problem.
But Catholicos Makar was indifferent to the issue.

This state of neglect and lack of protection comes from those times,
and it contributed to the activities of the sects. And although the
Armenian society was an overwhelming majority there in comparison with
the Muslims, the town remained absolutely unprotected when the
confrontations with the Turks began. The Turks managed to set the
entire Armenian district on fire. A few building remained wholesome by
some accident; one of them was the `Reality College’ of Shoushi (this
is what we emphasized in the Soviet times) and the other was the
hospital of the Zhamharyans.

Strange though it may seem, the `Reality College’ of Shoushi was burnt
by the people who had liberated the town from the Turks in 1992. There
was absolutely no need to burn the Turksih district of the town which
was saved from fire in the 1920’s. It was our house that we liberated.
We banished the Turks who had thrust in it; they had come and taken
possession of our property and used violence. We lost our patience and
dismissed them from our house. And there was no need no burn the part
of our house that was ever crossed by the Turks.