YEREVAN. – About 2,000 monuments are now endangered in the territories occupied by Azerbaijan during the second Karabakh war. The Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Lusine Karakhanyan, on Tuesday told this to a press conference in Yerevan.

She added that 13 monasteries, 122 churches, 52 fortresses, 523 cross-stones, 4 chapels, 127 school libraries, and 10 state-run and 2 private museums were endangered now.

According to her, the Tigranakert Archaeological Museum-Reserve and more than 800 samples from the carpet museum also have passed under Azerbaijani control.

In addition, as per the Artsakh official, Azerbaijan has launched a crackdown on the participants of archeological excavations. "Azerbaijan pursues an institutional policy of falsifying and destroying Armenian cultural monuments in these areas. We work with the Russian peacekeepers, the Foreign Ministry, and the international community to prevent such actions, but there are no tangible results in this regard yet. The visit of UNESCO representatives to Karabakh was scheduled for December 21, 2020, but Azerbaijan prevented it," Karakhanyan stressed.

The minister clarified that Azerbaijan is committing a cultural genocide, and noted the importance of pursuing an active and smart information policy against it.