Georgia showed claims for Armenian monuments back in Soviet times

PanARMENIAN.Net - Georgia showed claims for Western Armenian monuments back in Soviet times, Armenian architecture expert Samvel Karapetyan told a news conference in Yerevan, commenting upon Georgian side's recent attempts to appropriate Armenian cultural monuments. "Georgia's claims for Armenian churches and monuments, especially those situated in Tayk province (presently known as Artvin province in Turkish territory), date back to earlier times. That was one of the provinces which adopted Chalcedonism, being under the guardianship of Georgian church," Karapetyan said, adding that it was one of reasons Chalcedonian churches used Georgian alphabet letters invented by Mashtots. "Those records contain many serious mistakes. Therefore, their authors couldn't have been Georgians. The records were obviously written by Armenians converted to Chalcedonism,» the expert stressed adding that Georgians had no right make any claims to monuments. Karapetyan noted with regret that monuments and churches on those territories were studied only by one person - architect Tiran Marityan, who later published relevant materials.



PanARMENIAN.Net reported earlier that the historical Armenian province of Tayk had been visited by a group of «Georgian artist-pilgrims». Organized within the frames of Georgian «Living Music» festival, the trip consists of several stages. Such initiative was proposed by Georgian Writers' Union and approved by Tbilisi municipality.