Only 3% of historical monuments in Armenia well groomed

• Saturday, August 4, 21:05

Only 3% of historical monuments in Armenia are well groomed, Samvel Karapetyan, Director of Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA) Fund, told media on August 4.

He said that local population absolutely does not care for the monuments of culture and history. For instance, he said, people light candles or leave notes on khachkars. He alarmed that contemporary icons are nailed to the walls with ancient manuscripts in the Holy Virgin Mary Church (Astvatsatsin) in Bzhni.  Karapetyan said that only the temples in Garni and Zvartnots are well groomed, instead the nearby area is often used as a dump.

Arshak Zakaryan, the founder of the United Armenian Initiative, in turn, said that after construction of the road from Khosrov to the Avits tar Monastery, the number of tourists has significantly grown. As a result, nearby spring was soiled. The area of the Tatev Monastery is also full of garbage.

Zakaryan said that it is the local residents and not tourists that show careless attitude towards monuments.  To get out of the situation, the experts offer increasing fines for throwing garbage in the wrong places.