Destroyed during the years of Armenian occupation, Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan, will be completely restored, the head of the Department for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Heritage, Area Development and Property Management at the Shusha City State Reserve, Elmira Farzaliyeva, told the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza Daria Melekhova.
Darya Melekhova, as part of an international media delegation, visited Shusha and the Lachin road yesterday, where the protest action of Azerbaijani environmental activists is taking place.
First of all, Elmira Farzaliyeva spoke about Shusha's state during the years of occupation. "All monuments, especially cultural heritage sites, were completely destroyed or severely damaged. We have photos and videos that show the fact that Shusha has been really destroyed during these 30 years. We have already restored some of the monuments, but some of them we are just planning to restore. But, unfortunately, we will not be able to restore some of them, we can just do conservation for those monuments. The city was really just destroyed. And we are thinking that after five years, maybe we can just restore Shusha. So, we could just return the city to the original," she said.
"A lot has been done in the two years after the liberation of Shushi. For example, the Bulbul House-Museum has been completely restored, now people can visit it. The Kocharli spring and the Natavan spring have also been restored. The restoration of the House-Museum of Uzeyir Hajibeyov and Mehmandarov house is almost completed, the restoration process is almost done. At the same time, much more needs to be done. Our restoration plans will last at least five years, because almost 90% of monuments have been damaged in Shusha during occupation," Elmira Farzaliyeva noted.
"The restoration process takes time because we need to study before restoration. we study, we just do a lot of research, we just do historical research, which is gathering all the materials together, even some technical passports of the monuments were just destroyed. It's what I would call that cultural cleansing process, because we know that tangible intangible heritage were also destroyed, not only the tangible. Valuable exhibitions from the museums, carpets for example, which just shows our culture, were destroyed and we cannot even find some documents. We are working on their restoration," the employee of the Shusha City State Reserve emphasized.
She also commented on the protest of eco-activists on the Lachin road. "Unfortunately, an ecocide is taking place in Karabakh, which damages our country. As long as our specialists do not have the opportunity to gain control directly over the mines, we will hold this protest action on the Lachin road. We demand that our rights be respected and nothing more. Karabakh is the territory of Azerbaijan and we cannot allow our nature and environment to be damaged," Elmira Farzaliyeva concluded.
