Historian of architecture Samvel Karapetyan said that Armenians should be ‘glad’ that a namaz will be prayed on the ruins of Ani on October 1.

Until recently, the site where the public prayer will be offered was ignored. Now, Turkish government acknowledges that it’s a sacred place,” Karapetyan told journalists in Yerevan.

“There are plenty of churches turned in mosques but the government has chosen that very place to offend Armenians even more,” he said.

Karapetyan reminded that there were over 2000 Armenian churches and monuments in Turkey, now one tenth of them is left.

“If Turkey goes on in the same vein, no church will remain in some 10 or 15 years. Turkey will not calm down unless it destroys all Armenian monuments in its territory,” he said.