Participants of the movement "Save Historical Memorials" cleaned a church in Nagorno-Karabakh

On September, 25, activists of the civil movement "Save Historical Memorials" carried out cleansing works in Vankasar church dating back to VI-VII centuries not far from the ancient town of Tigranakert (Nagorno-Karabakh).

A group of 24 activists and local residents cleaned the church and the territory around it from rubbish and dirt. One of the organizers Armen Sarkisyan told us that the group was gathered through "Facebook" social network and it was already the second of their initiatives.

"We organized our group in order to contribute into maintenance of Armenian historical and cultural memorials. We have already cleaned a monument to Aik Naapet in Yerevan. This time we decided to hurl on Karabakh", Sarkisyan said.

According to him, they first chose the memorial "We and our Mountains" (called "Grandpa and Granny" by the common people), the most popular symbol of Nagorno-Karabakh, but it turned out that a group of young people from Stepanakert had already done cleansing works there several days before their arrival. The republican Department of Tourism drew their attention to another architectural memorial.

Sarkisyan remarked that only the participants of the group themselves financed cleaning of the monument to Aik Naapet in Yerevan and National Assembly of Armenia helped them with their trip to Karabakh.

"We wrote on the Facebook about our desire to go to Nagorno-Karabakh and contribute into maintenance of Armenian historical memorials. An open discussion passed off on the question. We wrote a lot of letters to different institutions of authority but got no answer. Then we appealed to National Assembly of Armenia where they replied and offered assistance", Sarkisyan said.

According to him, "it does not matter for the group whether to clean in Armenia or Nagorno-Karabakh".  "The point is for our work to be useful and show people that everything we are doing local residents can do as well", Armen Sarkisyan declared adding that their initiative had a positive response in Nagorno-Karabakh and the authorities provided them with specialists and escort.

Resident of Tigranakert Grisha Bagiryan said that anyone's cleaning the church was the first case for the last 11 years.

Seiran Airapetyan, head of an expert group of National Assembly of Nagorno-Karabakh remarked that "the guys have worked very well and the church and the territory around it are in a perfect state".