According to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Decree of January 5, 2022 on “Declaring 2022 as the Year of Shusha,” an event plan has been prepared for the “Genocide Memorial Complex” in Guba. As part of this plan, the Complex is hosting a series of events related to the topics such as ancient Azerbaijani lands, Karabakh, historical monuments, our material and cultural heritage, and so on.
Afgan Valiyev, chief adviser of the Social Research Center, presented the new book “Our material and cultural heritage in the historical lands of Azerbaijan” on October 13, 2022, at the “Genocide Memorial Complex” in Guba. The Complex’s director began the event with an introduction. Rakhshanda Bayramova (professor) informed the participants about Afgan Valiyev’s activities and congratulated the author on the publication of his book “Our material and cultural heritage in Azerbaijan’s historical lands.” Later, the author delivered a speech in which he discussed the importance of cultural heritage examples in conveying historical truths about each nation to future generations.
This book, the result of a significant historical, national, and spiritual research, provides an opportunity to develop an understanding of the current state of the process of destruction and erasure of Azerbaijani material and cultural heritage on Armenian territory.
Currently, 133 of Afgan Valiyev’s 244 monuments have been completely destroyed, 51 have been turned into ruins and Armenianized, and 58 usable monuments have been appropriated by Armenians. In addition, one good-condition Albanian church is presented as an Armenian church, and one good-condition mosque is presented as a Persian mosque. The book contains 49 pirs, fireplaces, sanctuaries, 40 mosques, 38 grave monuments, 15 temples, 13 fortresses, 19 Albanian churches, 13 caravansaries, 8 tombs, 6 ethnographic-archaeological monuments, 6 domes, 5 grave statues, 5 bridges, 3 mausoleums, 3 vaults, 3 archaeological monuments, 3 stone inscriptions, 2 madrasahs, 2 neighborhoods, 2 mansions,
The event was attended by approximately 30 Complex employees. Finally, the author donated some of his books to the complex’s rare fund library.
