A verbal sparring session took place yesterday in the Lori village of Dsegh, birthplace of famed Armenian poet Hovhannes Toumanyan, when a visiting Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan traded barbs with Mayor Norik Kocharyan.

It seems that Minister Poghosyan was not only unaware of the existence of a number of cultural monuments in the Dsegh area, but also had no recollection of statements she had made to the press about the operation of the ministry.

For instance, Mayor Kocharyan told the minister about the local tower in the medieval cemetery that is now leaning at a 18 degree angle and that he had written to her on several occasions and that her deputy Arevik Samuelyan had answered that he come to Yerevan to look for a professional organization to repair the tower.

The minister retorted that her deputy would never write such a thing, to which the mayor shot back, “I can show you a copy of his letter.”

In fact, Minister Poghosyan wasn’t even aware that the tower was under the jurisdiction of her ministry.

When she asked the mayor to forward copies of her deputy’s letters to Yerevan, Kocharyan put his foot down saying, “There’s no time for more correspondence. Do you want to wait till the tower falls down?”

He then rushed off and returned with the letters, to which an embossed minister responded, “Fine, it seems that we have to come up with a plan to reinforce the tower.”