After a grave illness, Doctor of Architecture, Founding Director of RAA Organisation and member of ICOMOS/Armenia Armen Haghnazarian departed this life at the age of 68. All his lifetime and activity were selfless devotion to the field of historical and cultural heritage, and he remained as a fervent advocate of its preservation until the very last moment of his life.
     Immediately after graduating from Aachen University, Germany, where he had specialised in Architecture and Urban Planning, Armen Haghnazarian harnessed himself to the documentation of Armenian religious monuments in Historical Armenia and Cilicia. In 1983 he founded RAA (Research on Armenian Architecture) Organisation in Aachen; in 1998 the Yerevan branch of the organisation was officially established. The ten-year large-scale work carried out by RAA has yielded a series of scientific publications which are available for researchers and every Armenian. Advocates of the preservation of cultural and historical heritage are well-aware of the high price that is to be paid for gathering information on monuments, particularly when you are working in the territory of Western Armenia, where specimens of Armenian culture and architecture are doomed to oblivion, neglect and destruction.
     Ever faithful to his vocation, Armen Haghnazarian did not spare efforts to inform the international community about the annihilation of the historical cemetery of Jugha (Julfa) through ICOMOS/Armenia, of which he had been a member from the very day of its foundation. His articles exposing this destruction were published in the ICOMOS Yearbook (Endangered Heritage) for 2002/2003 and 2006/2007, being followed by numerous exhibitions, films, publications, lectures...
     We deeply mourn the loss of our dear friend and exceptional professional whose devotion set an example for his contemporaries, and will still be shared by those who will choose the path of historical heritage preservation in the future. Unfortunately, we failed to express our high appreciation of, and gratitude for, Armen Haghnazarian's work in his lifetime: he was always busy with his numerous projects and did not have time to listen to words of praise.