YEREVAN. – The Armenian side had no hopes that the Lavash bread would be included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity as an Armenian cultural value.

Poetess and gourmet Sonia Tachdjian stated the aforementioned at a press conference on Tuesday. She added, however, that she was outraged by Azerbaijan’s ensuing protest alleging that Lavash is a regional culture and cannot be considered solely an Armenian cultural heritage.

Tachdjian expressed the view that Azerbaijan’s encroachments upon Armenian national values are linked to the Armenians’ apathy toward their cultural heritage.

“We [, Armenians,] don’t own up to our national values; in this case, to cuisine. No nomadic nation could have ever taken the tonir [i.e., Armenian for tandoor, the cylindrical oven in which the Lavash bread is baked] along; it is proper for those nations which lead a sedentary life,” she noted.

Ethnographer Suren Hobosyan, for his part, noted that it was last year when the Armenian side had submitted the application for including the Lavash bread in the abovementioned list.

“Others represent what is ours [, Armenians’,] as their cultural value; this is the pain. Finally there came a case when they said, ‘Yes, it’s yours,’” he noted.

In the ethnographer’s view, the Lavash bread is one of mankind’s greatest achievements. But, at the same time, he expressed concern that the homemade Lavash production is dropping.

“We’re losing even this very important cultural value,” Hobosyan added.