Monday, December 18 2023 19:06

ArmInfo. Armenia will apply for enhanced protection status for the Tatev and the Big Desert of Tatev Monastery Complexes and the Vorotan River Gorge within the framework of the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

According to the press service of the Ministry of Education and Science of Armenia -RA MoESCS, enhanced protection is a mechanism in accordance with the Second Protocol (1999) to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

The application submitted by the RA to obtain international financial support for the preparation of the application was approved at the 18th session of the Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague, 1954), held at UNESCO Headquarters.

At the final meeting of the commission, the application was presented by the director of the Center for the Study of Historical and Cultural Heritage Khachik Harutyunyan. The grant approved by UNESCO amounts to $55,000 dollars, with the help of which it is planned to carry out three-dimensional laser scanning and detailed digitization of all buildings and sub-monuments included in the Tatev and the Big Desert of Tatev Monastery Complexes, preparation of appropriate management and risk reduction programs, etc.

Based on them, an application will be prepared for the adoption of the complex of monuments under the auspices of the Hague Convention.  The duration of the project is 15 months.

The group of monuments Tatev and the Big Desert of Tatev Monastery Complexes and the Vorotan River Gorge has been included in the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1995. The approved grant will simultaneously create all the necessary prerequisites for including a group of monuments on the main list, which is also in the immediate plans.

The RA delegation at the event was led by the Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports, Alfred Kocharyan, who in his speech addressed the issue of endangered Armenian cultural heritage in Nagorno-Karabakh and the issue of UNESCO mission.