YEREVAN. - As of May 31, no application for taking part in the cave leasing contest announced by the Ministry of Culture of Armenia has been submitted, Secretary of the Commission on Contest Organization, Arsen Soghomonyan, told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

In early April, the Ministry of Culture launched a contest of leasing four caves and a cave group for five years for the purpose of tourism.

In fact, it is possible to apply for both all five caves and for one or several of them. The aforementioned caves include Magelan's Cave, Trchunneri (Birds') Cave or Areni 1, Archi or Bear’s Cave, Mozrov Cave and Stone Doors Cave. All of them are historical and cultural monuments of Armenia.  

The deadline for submitting applications was initially set for May 12, while the contest was planned to be held till May 15.

However, the conditions by which the agency intended to lease the monuments and the requirements for that sparked the criticism of the specialists. As a result of talks and discussions, the leasing conditions were changed.

According to those changes, the applications should be submitted by 6:00 pm on July 6. The applications will be considered at 11:00 am on July 7.