Nine former Artsakh culture ministers have addressed an open letter to Armenia’s Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, Zhanna Andreasyan, calling for concrete steps to protect Armenian historical and cultural heritage in occupied Artsakh.
The former ministers said the destruction, appropriation and distortion of the Armenian identity of cultural monuments in Artsakh are continuing, while Azerbaijan is also seeking to legitimize these policies on international platforms.
They called on the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport to publicly assess Azerbaijan’s actions, establish state mechanisms to monitor and document threats to Armenian heritage, and consistently raise the issue within relevant international professional and intergovernmental bodies.
The letter also stresses the need to protect Artsakh’s museum collections, document their legal status, and place the issue of their return on the international agenda as part of the cultural rights of the forcibly displaced Armenians of Artsakh.
The letter was signed by Anahit Hakobyan, Lernik Hovhannisyan, Sergey Shahverdyan, Narine Aghabalyan, Norek Gasparyan, Kamo Atayan, Ashot Ghulyan, Armen Sargsyan and Nelly Voskanyan.
