The best way to challenge Azerbaijan’s deceitful agitation campaign is to study historical monuments, Armenian archeologists say. Azerbaijan is claiming that Artsakh’s territory is a part of Western Azerbaijan, while studying historical monuments will incontrovertibly prove belonging of the liberated territories to entire Armenian cultural and historical heritage.   

Archeologists Artak Gnuni and Hakob Simonyan noted that archeological expeditions have been made in the liberated territories, as well as Syunik region sicne early 1990s. “Our excavations revealed that historical monuments located in the liberated territories belong to single Armenian cultural heritage,” they said. In particular, they spoke of unique valley of tombs discovered in Kereni, Kashatakh region of Karabakh. According to them, despite the fact the valley belongs to pre-Christian period, it was well preserved, while research proved that people residing in this territory preached Armenian heathen beliefs. “Does not it prove that the liberated territories were a part of the Armenian state in cultural and political aspect?" they wonder. Studying Kereni tomb they also traced influence of Van Kingdom civilization.

They also complained about shortage of government’s attention to historical monuments. About 800 m of Kereni tomb were damaged due to construction of roads in this territory. “We need roads but not at the expense of historical monuments,” they added. The archeologists stated that the Nagorno-Karabakh leadership expressed interest in research of the valley and have funded excavations within recent year.