SAMVEL KARAPETIAN

  The territory of each nation acquires a national feature and turns into Motherland only by national culture without which neither the nation nor the Motherland can exist.
  Therefore, the thesis that the destiny of peoples is determined not only in the battlefield but also in the struggle against any efforts to destroy or misappropriate cultural monuments and falsify the history of culture is indisputable. Under such conditions the Armenian scientist and soldier play the same role: the former by pen, the latter by arms. No concessions can be made either in the first or in the second case. In both cases retreat or silence means national treason and the struggle is heroism.
  In the person of Samvel Karapetian we deal with a scientist-hero who has dedicated his life to the struggle against the policy of destruction or appropriation of Armenian cultural monuments by the neighbouring peoples.
  This book is dedicated to the genocide of Armenian cultural monuments in Georgia, which, strategically speaking, is not in the best interests of the Georgian people and can result in the damaging of the good relations between the two neighbouring peoples.
  The work is documentary and the facts are incontrovertible.

Lendroush Khourshoudian
President of the Union of Armenian Historians, academician

  I would be glad if we had not been forced to publish what is presented in this book and what is only a grain of the sad reality.This book is a complaint exposing injustice. Here the pictures speak clearly and truthfully and the eye-witness testimonies and other research materials are added to them as proof.
  Throughout the centuries border changes resulted in making the northern regions of Armenia along with their population part of Georgia. Later the number of these people was increased by the Armenian immigrants who found shelter in Georgia escaping from the Ottoman dominion in Western Armenia. This country became the Motherland of the newcomers as well and they contributed greatly to the development of Georgia for centuries. (The facts confirm this).
  The same also refers to the past of the Armenian-Persians. The four provinces of Vaspourakan, situated in Atrpatakan, Persia, were occupied by native Armenians for centuries. The Armenians who had emigrated from different parts of Armenia settled in various regions of the country and built their homes there enjoying the respect of the hospitable state and the Islamic nation.
  Today the spiritual and lay buildings of Persia built by the Armenians are under state auspices. In Nor (New) Djugha the houses of Armenian salesmen, khojas, and numerous churches are preserved. The Armenian churches are under repairs in Atrpatakan. However, quite the opposite is the case with the Armenian-Georgians and what they have built, be it a church, a cemetery, or another building.
  This continuous cultural genocide is the result of changing national consciousness for nationalism and a policy dictated by the authorities. It begins with the forced Georgianization of one’s name and religion up to the destruction of churches, their alteration or misappropriation.
  In today’s civilized world when UN and its sister organizations do their best to provide mutual understanding and respect among peoples and reduce the significance of state borders, the Georgian policy of destroying the cultural monuments of the neighbouring people is consistently applied under the slogan of brotherhood. This fact is intolerable taking into consideration human rights.

Dr. Armen Hakhnazarian
Founding director of RAA

  We have not compiled such a book so far. Nor was it desirable. But the sincere wish to prevent or at least to moderate the continuous desecration of national spiritual and cultural monuments makes us speak(at least once) against the noisy Georgian newspapers, radio, magazines and the “Motherland building intelligentsia”. After all, how long can we tolerate the vandalism of our neighbours towards Armenian churches, public buildings and cemeteries? In the Ukraine the Armenian chapels and districts are being restored. The same is true about those in Iran but our centuries-old neighbour destroys what is impossible to Georganize without any remorse.
  Yes, this book is even late, but still it does exist. The materials compiled in it are trustworthy and painful. They express the pain of those eye- witnesses who appreciate history and do not tolerate the barbarism and genocide carried out through the efforts of the intelligentsia and the state and scientific spiritual centres. The author has diligently compiled trustworthy materials for many years. The presented photos express, of course, both reproach and pain. Perhaps, our neighbours will come to realize what they are doing. Nobody makes progress by destroying, do they?

Souren Saghoumian
Head of the Monuments Restoration Department

  It is impossible to conceal facts from history. Those who try “to edit” history are not reasonable. History always finds out and retains the truth.The problem consists in the effort to alter a certain historical-cultural monument or a phenomenon on purpose. This means to disregard the monuments preservation norms while they are approved all over the civilized world.
  This book comprises facts and testimonies which are worthy of detailed discussion and appreciation and cannot be disregarded by the Georgian organizations of the preservation of historical and cultural heritage. Nor can they be disregarded by the society for the sake of truth and permanent friendship.

Koryun Ghafadarianp
Candidate of Architecture

  Samvel Karapetian is one of those exceptional individuals who has dedicated his entire conscious life to the study and preservation of Armenian historical and cultural monuments. I am firmly convinced that the life of this unwearing researcher is a true feat which is still to be studied and appreciated properly. I have been following his work with great attention and zeal, and have been reading his interesting works and articles dedicated to the research on our people’s historical and cultural monuments.
  Karapetian’s new and large research on the destruction of the historical and cultural monuments on the territory of Georgia shocked me. There are moments when one is at a loss and the pen will not write. The annihilation of the centuries-old spiritual heritage of the Armenian people in the neighbouring Christian country is true pathology. I am sure it is first of all a great disgrace for themselves.
  I myself have always been pro-Georgian and have been led by the idea that respect and friendship between the two Christian peoples who have passed through the thorny routes of history can be useful for both of them. I have had friends in Georgia but I can neither understand nor explain the state policy of the destruction and robbery of the Armenian historical and cultural heritage. A policy that nears vandalism.
  The destruction of Khojivank Cemetery alone, where the remains of the greatest Armenian geniuses are interred, is the greatest crime done by the state and ecclesiastical leaders. I also want to express my reproach to the Georgian intelligentsia who treat this with indifference and do not make any complaints against this barbarism.
  It is common knowledge that by the evil will of fate Tbilisi was the spiritual and cultural centre of the Armenians, a centre where the spiritual and cultural ties of the Armenians and Georgians were intertwined. The benefactors of Armenian culture contributed greatly to the propaganda of Georgian culture.
  The misappropriation of churches...What shame and vandalism! Can people of such inferior instincts govern nations and preach any religion?
  The careless and indifferent attitude of the Armenian government towards the destruction of the historical and cultural monuments of their own people is also very irritating. Does the Georgian government wish to become the successor of Turkish barbarians?

Alexan Kirakosian
Statesman, first vice-president of the Council of Ministers of ASSR (1970-87),
Head of the Monuments Preservation Department (1987-88)

Mourad Hasratian
Doctor of Architecture, Head of the Architecture Department of the
Art Institute of the National Academy of Sciences, RA

A FEW WORDS FROM THE COMPILER

"Happy, though unaware of it, are those nations of the world who do not have
civilization-destroying neighbours".

   Years ago we used this phrase with reference to those monuments of Armenian culture which were in the territories of Historical Armenia either occupied by Turkey or annexed to Soviet Azerbaijan since 1920.
  Unfortunately, today we have to state that the diverse and numerous monuments of Armenian culture created throughout the ages with the blood and sweat of the people are mostly endangered not only in Turkey or Azerbaijan which has studied the lessons taught by the former perfectly, but also even in Christian Georgia. Yes, in that country at present the monuments of Greek, Russian, German, and especially Armenian culture are being eliminated. In contrast to the others, the presence of Armenian monuments has been regarded as particularly dangerous for the simple reason that in Southern Georgia the Armenians are natives unlike some regions of the country (Kartli, Cahetia, Imeret) where they are newcomers like the representatives of other nations. On the territory of that neighbouring country only in the recent ten years the Armenian historical monuments have undergone extensive and deliberate demolition or appropriation.
  It is a fact, though difficult to imagine, that the vandalism carried out towards the monuments of Armenian culture has been practised with the immediate participation, often on the direct initiative or under the supervision, and at any rate with at least the neutrality and connivance of the state and ecclesiastical leaders. Anyway, it would be naive to think that when president Shevardnadze standing next to the Georgian patriarch Ilya II took part in the blessing of the Georgian church to be built in the place of Khojivank, the ancient Armenian cemetery of Havlabar, an old Armenian district in Tbilisi, annihilated under Stalin, was not aware of the fact.
  Today the solemnly founded church is in the process of construction. As a result of the foundation work hundreds of remains of deceased Armenians (including outstanding figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, culture, armed forces) were scattered here and there.
  Today the news of the demolition of Armenian churches, cemeteries, khachkars (cross-stones), tomb-stones, and even the most trustworthy primary sources of history, lapidary inscriptions, does not sound as alarm or sad news but rather as a common daily occurrence. If the monument is situated in Georgia and belongs to Armenian culture its end is the same - annihilation, regardless of its nature, function, and age. The number of the inscriptions which have been scraped off, obliterated or simply disappeared from the walls of about 30 Georgianized churches, other buildings and tomb-stones has already exceeded 300! Particularly in Tbilisi dozens of Armenian churches have been destroyed or Georgianized while thousands of graves have been defiled. And all this has been carried out in a city which was mainly inhabited by Armenians throughout many centuries, and which was governed and built through the efforts of exceptionally Armenian mayors for more than a century, up to the October Revolution.
  The incontrovertible evidence of eye-witnesses, scientific and other articles and photographs presented in this book demand an honest judgement: it unmasks the Georgian government which claims to belong to the civilized world. Since only the events of devastation are documented in this book, we have found it necessary to dedicate one of the forthcoming publications of RAA (Research on Armenian Architecture) to Armenian religious constructions situated on the territory of present-day Georgia ("Armenian Churches in Georgia").
  The policy adopted by any authorities leaves its inevitable trace on the moral make-up of their own people, especially when it is carried out consistently. The fact that the Georgian intelligentsia have not opposed to the cultural genocide, planned and purposefully carried out particularly in the recent ten years, makes us believe that the authorities of that country have succeeded in contaminating the intelligentsia with unhealthy attitudes.
  Neither the previous, nor the present period of history can ever be consigned to alteration or obliteration, for there are many documents and a vast amount of multi-lingual literature.
  The conclusion is the following: by destroying or misappropriating a neighbour's civilization a nation can never create their own history, nor can they annihilate that of the former.