Samvel Karapetian ( hy, Սամվել Կարապետյան; 30 July 1961 – 27 February 2020) was an

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

historian, researcher, author, and expert of medieval architecture, specializing in the study of the historical monuments of

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ' ...

Nagorno Karabakh Nagorno-Karabakh ( ) is a landlocked region in the South Caucasus, within the mountainous range of Karabakh, lying between Lower Karabakh and Syunik, and covering the southeastern range of the Lesser Caucasus mountains. The region is mos ...

and other regions of the

Southern Caucasus The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

Research work

Karapetian surveyed and catalogued thousands of artifacts of Armenian history and architecture during the course of more than two decades. Karapetyan was head of the

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...

branch of the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

Research on Armenian Architecture Research on Armenian Architecture (RAA) is a non-governmental organisation NGO (Foundation since 2010) established in Aachen, Germany, in 1982 by Dr. Armen Hakhnazarian. Long before its official creation, RAA interests and activities have been ca ...

(RAA). Karapetyan was also known as an outspoken critic of the treatment of Armenian monuments in Turkey: he argued that Turkey has a policy of intentional neglect and planned destruction. He also presented evidence that accuses

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

and

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

of deliberately destroying Armenian historical monuments. He presented his findings to

US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

in 2007 and to the

European Court of Human Rights The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...

in 2008. Karapetyan was also an outspoken critic of the

Armenian Apostolic Church , native_name_lang = hy , icon = Armenian Apostolic Church logo.svg , icon_width = 100px , icon_alt = , image = Էջմիածնի_Մայր_Տաճար.jpg , imagewidth = 250px , a ...

and an advocate of the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

in Armenia. In 2007 Karapetian received the Armenian Presidential Humanitarian Sciences Prize for his works, and in 2020 he was posthumously awarded by Movses Khorenatsi medal by the President of Armenia.Decrees of the President of RA, 21 September 2020
/ref> At the same time Karapetian's views received some criticism. In his 2003 book '' Black Garden'' British journalist

Thomas de Waal Thomas Patrick Lowndes de Waal (born 1966) is a British journalist and writer on the Caucasus. He is a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe. He is best known for his 2003 book '' Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War''. Lif ...

disagreed with Karapetian's claims about the town of

Kalbajar Kalbajar ( az, Kəlbəcər , ) is a city and the capital of the Kalbajar District of Azerbaijan. Located on the Tartar river valley, it is away from the capital Baku. The city had a population of 7,246 before its capture by Armenian forces on ...

in Azerbaijan: "In what sense can Kelbajar be called 'Armenian', when no Armenian had lived there for almost a hundred years? I said that I could not accept that Kelbajar was 'liberated' territory, when all of its fifty thousand or so Azerbaijani or Kurdish inhabitants had been expelled". According to de Waal, for Karapetian "the past eclipsed the present: those were 'Turks' and interlopers".

Published works

* ''Բուն Աղվանքի հայերեն վիմագրերը'' (''Armenian Lapidary Inscriptions in Caucasian Albania Proper''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 1997. * ''Վրաց Պետական Քաղաքականությունը և հայ մշակույթի հուշարձանները, 1988–1998'' (''Georgian State Policy and Historical Armenian Monuments, 1988–1998''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 1998. *''Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh''. Trans. Anahit Martirossian. Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2001. * ''Ջավախքի Պատմական Հուշարձանները'' (''The Historical Monuments of Javakhk''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2001. *''Կովկասյան թանգարանի Հայկական հավաքածուն'' (''The Armenian Collection of the Caucasian Museum''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004. * ''Հյուսիսային Արցախ'' (''Northern Artsakh''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004. * ''Հայերը Կախեթում'' (''The Armenians of

Kakhetia Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

''). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004.

References

External links

RAA Official site

Samvel Karapetyan
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Karapetyan, Samvel 1961 births 2020 deaths 20th-century Armenian historians 21st-century Armenian historians Armenian architectural historians Armenian scientists