Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Lusine Karakhanyan has confirmed that after the First Karabakh War, Armenia possesses 4 dozen Azerbaijani paintings, which the Armenian side is ready to exchange, Aravot.am reports.

The Minister noted that the Azerbaijani side, which had not expressed interest in said paintings for 30 years, has now been offered to exchange them for the Armenian cultural treasures trapped in Shushi.

"This is paradoxical: they are not interested in their values, but are used to robbing others. I cannot say in detail what kind of works they are, I know that these are Azerbaijani paintings," Karakhanyan said.

"We proposed this option within the cooperation with Russian peacekeepers immediately after the war, but these people are ignorant, this is a nation that does not value culture, but only steals culture. We are in such a difficult situation. The Russian peacekeeping contingent has cultural and educational personnel, and we worked with them."

Russian peacekeepers were deployed to the region immediately after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev on November 9 signed a statement to end the war in Karabakh after almost 45 days. Under the deal, the Armenian side returned all the seven regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh, having lost a part of Karabakh itself in hostilities.