In recent years, there have been a growing number of archeological projects in our country, thanks to growing cooperation between Armenian archaeologists and archaeological groups from several other countries.

Digs in the Ararat valley have yielded great results. Levon Petrosyan, a senior scientist at the Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology, explained that there are burial grounds in the Ashtarak region, in the Tsaghkalanj and Aghavnatun districts, that contain many tombs and fortresses, the exact locations of which are known, but which have remained unexcavated. Armenian and French archaeologists have recently discovered Stone Age settlements near Aratashen. According to the archaeologists, these places had been settled by 6000-5000 B.C.

The archaeologist noted that there are treasure hunters who raid the historic monuments, and who are especially active in Armavir Marz. When archaeologists discover a tomb through surface examination, they have little hope that when they open it they will find the contents intact. But fortunately, this time the archaeologists’ fears were not justified; treasure hunters had not managed to raid this tomb. Thus, the tomb of one of the rulers of the Urartu era has remained untouched with all of its contents.

"On one hand, treasure hunters raid and destroy our many thousand-year old culture; on the other hand, the government avoids the issue. The area called Drer in Armavir Marz, which contains prehistoric tombs, is being privatized and cultivated. This area holds in its depths the history of millennia, which will remain undiscovered, " said Levon Petrosyan.

Archaeologist Pirdus Muradyan, who protests not against privatization and cultivation of land, but against their illegal land appropriation, said, “The Registry has no idea about historic and cultural values; it privatizes undiscovered historic and cultural treasures left and right.  The privatization of these lands should be done not through an arrangement between the Registry and the private owner, which is violation of the law, but through a decision by the Agency of Monument Protection, as required by the Republic of Armenia Law on Land."

The head of the Echmiadzin registry, Shiraz Harutyunyan, reject this accusation, shifting blame onto the Agency for the Protection of Monuments. "Where do the borders start and end in those places which contain undiscovered history? “ Harutyunyan asked. He blames the agency for the current situation. First the agency has not yet legalized its jurisdiction over these territories and does not have privatization documents. Second, the agency was silent in its opposition to decisions by the government in 2003 to 2005 to hand those areas over to communities.

“The community heads sold the land. There was nothing stopping them," said the head of the registry. He said that the areas which had been marked as tomb fields on the map weren't privatized, but remained as monuments. The areas which had not been marked as cultural treasures were sold. 

Archeologists, meanwhile, deplore Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan's attitude towards historic and cultural values. "When a country's Culture Minister doesn't understand what a many-thousand-year-old culture is, what can we talk about?" protested Pirdus Muradyan. He and his colleagues are angry about what has happened to the Tsaghkalanj burial grounds, where a 170-hectare protected zone was established in 1993. But according to Muradyan, 90% of that is now owned by wealthy individuals, and the remaining 10% is located on a rocky hill and contains no history it its depths.

Archaeologists are angry about Minister Poghosyan's ignorance of Tsaghkalanj as a valuable historic site. "For more than a year the minister has refused to present these documents to the government and hasn’t justified her refusal in any way, " Muradyan said.

According to Muradyan, there are cemeteries and fortresses in the territory between Metsamor and Lernamerdz. "These areas have been completely privatized; they are now owned by government officials and rich people, " the historian said, adding that Yerevan Mayor Yervand Zakharyan owns 300 hectares of land here, 230 of which have been cultivated. Albert Heroyan, the former governor of Armavir, owns 400 hectares of land that belongs to the villages of Aragats villages'. Artsakh Alko has purchased a similar amount of land near Aghavnatun, right on the burial grounds, next to a recently excavated tomb.

"The unexcavated treasures now belong to them and will do so until the government buys them back. But that will never happen, first because the owner would ask an astronomical sum, which the government couldn't afford, and secondly the government, if it had a proper approach to these historical treasures, would not be destroying them now, " said archaeologist Pirdus Muradyan.