Lernik Hovhannisyan: Intangible cultural heritage of Artsakh is at great risk

Speaking with Alpha News, the former Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Artsakh, Lernik Hovhannisyan, noted that the intangible cultural heritage of Artsakh is at great risk.

“The immovable cultural monuments of our history are subject to various types of vandalism and desecration, but, at least to some extent, these buildings and structures cannot be completely destroyed.

But the intangible cultural heritage is at great risk due to the separation of the people from their historical land—the people who lived in the same community and for thousands of years performed their socio-cultural functions that were unique to them. This also applies to the Artsakh dialect and the cultural elements of everyday life, including dishes such as baklava and jingyalov hats. We must take the necessary steps to preserve all this,” Hovhannisyan said.

According to Hovhannisyan, preserving the intangible cultural heritage will be difficult since all the people of Artsakh are now far from each other.

“One of the main difficulties is that there is no place to live together. To preserve a dialect, people must talk to each other, communicate, at least within the family and the inner circle. We need to look for other ways, and first of all, we need to present these features through art, that is, through songs and theatrical performances. The bearer of the intangible heritage is a person, and if a person is deprived of the right to represent all this, then in a generation everything will be lost. The same applies to, say, carpet weaving and pottery. There were villages in Artsakh where these crafts were traditionally practiced. We need to take measures to preserve all this as well as popularize it,” Lernik Hovhannisyan said.

Hovhannisyan also spoke about the Armenian Patriarchate in Constantinople and emphasized that it is subordinate to Turkiye and is afraid to even talk about the Armenian Genocide․

“The 3,800 Udins who remained on the territory were captured and held hostage by the Azerbaijani authorities. If they suddenly do something wrong, they will be subjected to persecution similar to that suffered by Talysh Shia Muslims. For example, part of the Talysh intelligentsia is now in Azerbaijani prisons. Azerbaijan will use, for its own purposes, not only the Russian Orthodox Church but also the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The patriarchates in Constantinople are under the direct influence of Turkiye, and all their steps are controlled by the Turkish Ministry of Religious Affairs. A clear proof of this is the Armenian Patriarchate, which is afraid to even talk about the Armenian Genocide,” Hovhannisyan said.