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Founder and artistic director of the Karin Folk Dance and Song Group, culturologist Gagik Ginosyan, who took park in the recent Artsakh war, on Friday said Azerbaijanis have destroyed only the dome of Saint John the Baptist Church, commonly known as Kanach Zham (Green Chapel) in Artsakh.

His comments came after some reports alleged the church, which is located in the town of Shushi occupied by Azerbaijani forces in the 2020 war, has been fully destroyed.

“This is yet another case of the destruction and desecration of Armenian cultural values, which takes place amid the silence of international organizations, while there is nothing to talk about the Armenian authorities. There is no government either in Armenia or Artsakh, as no one has addressed the issue so far,” Ginosyan told a news conference.

He said the Armenian authorities also remained silent when UNESCO refused to recognize traditional group dance Kochari as an element of the Armenian intangible cultural heritage for 4 years.

“Then it turned out that Director-General of UNESCO, certain Ms  Bokova, a Bulgarian allegedly of Turkish origin, was a close friend of Aliyev's wife. And Kochari was inscribed [on the UNESCO list] only after this woman was caught up in a corruption scandal and sacked, with Charles Aznavour receiving the first congratulations as Armenia’s ambassador to UNESCO.

“Even then, no member of the Armenian government or the Ministry of Culture raised this issue,”  Ginosyan said.

He also pointed to the destruction of Armenian khachkars (cross-stones) in Jugha, stating Armenia has never issued a protest note over the matter.

“The same happened in case of the targeted destruction of the Armenian churches in Syria’s Deir ez-Zor and Aleppo. And it doesn't matter at all that it took place in Syria, those were Armenian churches belonging to the Armenian Apostolic Church. But even the church did not speak about it. The same is happening now. Armenia is deaf and dumb. Armenia seems not to hear when experts raise the issue and fails to do it itself either,” Ginosyan noted.