The head of archaeological expedition in Tigranakert, professor Hamlet Petrosyan insists Azerbaijan is carrying out cultural genocide in Armenian heritage sites of Artsakh. He has raised the issue of Dadivank monastery.
"Dadivank has not a single component which is non-Armenian, be that Albanian or Udi. It refers to both the architectural solutions of the complex and the sculptures, cross-stones as well as the frescoes," Petrosyan wrote on Facebook, adding: "Apart from 200 Armenian inscriptions of the 12th-17th centuries, there are no foreign letters. Azerbaijani actions, regarding Dadivank as an Albanian or Udi site, bringing Udi pilgrims there, are nothing but an explicit cultural genocide, an act of forcibly taking the religious and cultural heritage from their creators."
To note, Dadivank is one of the iconic landmarks of Artsakh. It was built in the 9th-13th centuries. The church is located on the slopes of Dadivank Mountain near the village of Dadivank in Nagorno-Karabakh. The monastery complex was subject to handover to Azerbaijan as part of the trilateral statement putting end on military hostilities in Artsakh. Director of Information Services of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin Fr. Vahram Melikyan later informed that the monastery remained under the protection of Russian peacekeepers and is out of danger.