February 21, 2006 - 16:16 AMT
Statements on Azeri Monuments Being Destroyed in Armenia False
There are no monuments of Azerbaijani culture in Armenia. On the whole, the concept «an Azerbaijani monument» is not used by the historical science, head of the Agency for Preservation of Historical and Cultural Monuments at the Ministry of Culture and Youth Affairs of Armenia, professor of architecture Artem Grigoryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent. In his words, on the territory of Armenia there are Muslim architecture monuments dating back to 17-19 centuries. «The largest out of these is the Blue Mosque in Yerevan, which operates of Iranian people living in Armenia. There is another mosque in Agarak, which is dilapidated. Works are carried out there to specify the time it was built. There were many mosques and burial places on the territory of Armenia - almost all of these were demolished during the soviet rule. By the way, Christian temples shared their fate,» Grigoryan remarked.

When commenting of Azerbaijanis' statements that Azeri monuments are destroyed on the territory of Armenia, Grigoryan said it is lie - at that a deliberate one. «They know very well that they lie to their own people, however that is the way their propaganda machine works. If they say it as they do not know history, the worse for Azeri historians and political scientists. If we pay attention to every ignorant statement of Azerbaijan's historian, we will be putting ourselves on the same level with them,» Grigoryan emphasized.

The full text of the interview can be found in Interviews section.