YEREVAN (Armenpress/Yerkir)–The Nigol Aghbalian Student Union of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) opened Tuesday an exhibition of 70 photos–shot by Samvel Karapetian and Hrayr Baze–which COMPARE the past and present state of Armenian monumen’s in Georgia–Azerbaijan–Turkey–and Iran.
The exhibition titled "Cultural Genocide" will run for three days outside the Yerevan State University.
The photos on display show how Armenian monumen’s are gradually destroyed in the neighboring countries. While last year’s exhibition showed only photos of the Armenian monumen’s in Western Armenia–this year it was expanded to include the pictures from all four neighbors of Armenia.
"It is not an accident that Iran was included in this exhibition," said NASU Chairman Iskhan Saghatelian. "The situation in that country is completely different. Iran is the best example of the dialogue of civilizations.
Although the Iranian government works to preserve Armenian monumen’s–this is not the case in Georgia–where numerous Armenian monumen’s were destroyed and as more declared as "being Georgian."
The fate of Armenian monumen’s in Turkey and Azerbaijan is even worse. The governmen’s of these countries sanction the destruction of monumen’s.
Answering the question on how the international community is to know about this exhibition–Saghatelian said the ARF youth organizations hold similar exhibitions in other countries and–in addition–the NASU plans to send the electronic version of the exhibition to the foreign missions in Yerevan. "We believe it will help," Saghatelian said.
"The Council of Europe condemned to destruction of the Armenian khachkars (cross stones) in Old Julfa thanks to the efforts of the ARF Hay Tad offices and other organizations. If we put efforts we would ensure that such vandalism is prevented."