Ruined Armenian city of Ani included in UNESCO World Heritage listJuly 16, 2016 - 16:54 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN's cultural agency on Friday, July 15 added a ruined Armenian city inside Turkey's closed border with the ex-Soviet state to its World Heritage list, as it elevated eight other sites across the world to the list ranking, AFP reports. The site of Ani, which lies outside the Turkish city of Kars, was the capital of an Armenian kingdom around the end of the first millenium, before its conquest in 1064 by Seljuk forces hastened a decline then completed by the Mongol conquest and an earthquake. In another sensitive inscription, UNESCO elevated to World Heritage status caves once inhabited by Neanderthals in Britain's overseas territory of Gibraltar, which is claimed by Spain. They joined seven other sites including in Iran, India, China, Micronesia and Spain in being added to the World Heritage list at the meeting of UNESCO in Istanbul. The ruined churches and secular buildings of Ani are a hugely sensitive site, lying directly on the other side of Turkey's completely closed border with Armenia. Ankara has no relations with Yerevan with the two countries mired in a dispute over the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman forces during World War I which Armenians and several Western parliaments regards as genocide. Photo: Hansm/wikipedia.org Top stories Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev arrived in Moscow on April 22 to hold talks with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive. In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million). The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot". Partner news | Police try to impede Armenian Church head’s access to war memorial Police tried to stop the supreme head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, from visiting a war memorial. Greece says ready to help as Armenia fights flooding consequences Greece is ready to assist Armenia in combatting the consequences of deadly floods in the country’s north. “He will leave”: Protest leader no longer demands meeting with Pashinyan Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan no longer demands a meeting with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. Lemkin Institute petition seeks release of Armenians in Azerbaijan The Lemkin Institute is deeply concerned about the continued illegal detention of political prisoners from Karabakh in Azerbaijan. |