St. On October 24, a photo was widely distributed on the Internet, showing how the tombstone of Catholicos St. Grigorisn grandson of Grigor Lusavoric, was allegedly destroyed by the enemy (photo posted below).

The “LUYS” Foundation declares that the photo mentioned is old. This tombstone visible in the photo was made in 1898 by Shushi architect Mikael Ter-Israiliants with the help of Shushi Armenians.

However, this tombstone was broken by Azerbaijani special forces in 1990, when the monastery came under their control. In early 2000, a copy of the tombstone was made in the Amaras monastery complex and placed in the sanctuary. So, since 2001, is represented in Amaras, two tombstones of St. Gregory the Catholicos, the tombstone made at the end of the 19th century, were permanently exhibited inside the church near the entrance, and the new tombstone was placed in the crypt under the altar of the church.

Unfortunately, the “LUYS” Foundation does not exclude that the Amaras monastic complex is under Azerbaijani occupation, which, according to the testimonies of Armenian historians, was founded at the beginning of the 4th century by Gregory the Illuminator and where at the beginning from the 5th century century St. Mesrop Mashtots opened the first school in Artsakh, in the near future it may be desecrated or completely destroyed by the enemy, like other Armenian religious shrines and historical and cultural monuments that have become a symbol of Artsakh, a striking example of which is the church of Ghazanchetsots in Shushi.

The comprehensive restoration work on the Amaras Monastery complex began in September 2019 by the “LUYS” Foundation. Restoration work on the Amaras Monastery complex was already in the final stages and was expected to be completed by the end of this year in December 2023.

Moreover, the restoration work of the Amaras Monastery complex, which is at the forefront of preserving the Christian values of Artsakh and the entire Armenian people, did not stop even when the Artsakh was under siege for 10 months.

  The government of Western Armenia always keeps the problems of Armenian historical and cultural monuments in the center of its attention. The Minister of Protection of Cultural Values of Western Armenia, Raffi Kortoshyan, who is also deputy director of the Armenian office of the Foundation for the Study of Armenian Architecture, constantly reports on the state of cultural values and their threat. As a reminder, let us say that Western Armenia is the only structure whose president, Armenag Aprahamian, alongside Samvel Karapetyan, the late director of the RAA, sued the Baku authorities for the destruction of the Khachkars of Nakhichevan. The vandalism of the Khachkars of Nakhichevan is a scourge for the entire civilized world.