January 14, 2009 - 19:03 AMT
Samvel Karapetyan: appropriation of Armenian and Persian monuments peculiar to Azerbaijan
There is one mosque and several shrines in the liberated territories surrounding Nagorno Karabakh. At that, the architects of the shrines are Armenians by origin, an Armenian historian said.

"The mosque of Gandzak built in 1620 under Shah Abbas and the mosque of Shushi built in the 18th century are the monuments of Persian architecture," Samvel Karapetyan told a news conference today.

"Meanwhile, Baku is confident that all Muslim monuments belong to Azerbaijan," he said, adding that Iran is indignant over appropriation of its monuments.

According to Trend Azeri news agency, TURKSOY international organization founded by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkey and Turkmenistan in 1993 is preparing a list of historical and cultural monuments of Nagorno Karabakh to submit it to UNESCO.