Azerbaijan Does Not Allow the Removal of Over 1500 Artworks and Unique Samples from Shushi

Renowned geologist and philanthropist Grigor Gabrielyants is actively negotiating with the Russian side regarding the rescue and evacuation of museum exhibits that have remained in the city of Shushi, which was surrendered to the enemy. This was reported to NEWS.am by Lusine Gasparyan, the director of the Shushi City Museums State Non-Commercial Organization. She hopes that through the mediation of the Russian side, it will be possible to save at least some fragments of Shushi's immense cultural heritage.

Before the September war, Shushi, considered the cultural center of Artsakh, hosted four state and two private museums. Unfortunately, during the war, only the exhibits of a private carpet museum were evacuated from the city, while three of the four museums under the state organization moved their collections to a bomb shelter.

“I was in Shushi at the beginning of November and only moved to Yerevan on November 5. During that time, no one could have thought that the city could be surrendered and that there would be a need to evacuate the collections from the bomb shelter. We moved all the exhibits to the bomb shelter under bombardment, and had whispers reached us that the city might surrender, we would have moved those collections to Stepanakert, as was done with other territories that came under Azerbaijani control,” said Gasparyan, emphasizing that the authorities of Artsakh and Armenia did not inform them of the intention to surrender the city, while the defense ministry insisted until November 9 that Shushi was under our control.

Currently, 197 historical and cultural monuments (158 units) of the city of Shushi, nearly 800 paintings, graphics, and sculptures from the Museum of Fine Arts, and over 700 samples from the Geology Museum of Shushi have fallen under the control of the enemy. It is worth noting that the Geology Museum exhibited not only minerals discovered in the territory of Artsakh but also world samples of geological interest, most of which were donated to the museum by the last Minister of Geology of the USSR, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Professor Grigori Gabrielyants.

“Today, the Azerbaijani side does not even want to hear about returning the remaining collections in Shushi, while all of this is our cultural heritage and must be returned to us. Knowing the enemy's pattern, we do not have positive expectations from the negotiations, but we must do everything possible to save what we have,” she stated.

Lusine Gasparyan noted that she regularly follows the footage published in Azerbaijani sources, which show that the museum has not been destroyed as a result of bombardment. According to her, this indicates that the samples moved to the bomb shelter could not have been damaged before November 9, and if the Azerbaijani side refuses to return the samples or claims that they have not been preserved, it remains to conclude that we are dealing with yet another war crime.

It should be noted that attacks on historical monuments, artworks, and places of worship that represent the cultural and spiritual heritage of peoples are gross violations of international treaty and customary humanitarian law, while the destruction of cultural monuments during military operations constitutes a war crime.