While They Argue Over Establishing Carpet Museum in Armenia, Azerbaijani Carpet was Recognized as Intangible Heritage of Humanity

During the last month the topic of carpet and carpet making has been actual both in Armenia and Azerbaijan. While in Azerbaijan the mass media are flooded with news about their carpet having been included in UNESCO list of intangible heritage, the discussions in Armenia are but controversial. Here the specialists are discussing whether a carpet museum and a research center should be established or not.

the topic of carpet and carpet making has been actual both in Armenia and Azerbaijan. While in Azerbaijan the mass media are flooded with news about their carpet having been included in UNESCO list of intangible heritage, the discussions in Armenia are but controversial. Here the specialists are discussing whether a carpet museum and a research center should be established or not.

Ethnographer Ashkhunj Poghossyan notes that the idea of establishing a Carpet Museum is not new. The decision of establishing such museum was made in 1981. The idea was not brought to life as the building was damaged by the earthquake, and later, during the years of independence this idea came to be ignored. The picked samples of carpets are now kept in the State Museum of Ethnography, where there are no conditions necessary for keeping the collection.

Poghossyan mentions that he has applied to different institutions, among them the government, the Ministry of Culture, but has received no sufficient answer. The director of the Museum of History Anelka Grigoryan does not support the idea of opening the museum on the grounds that there are not enough carpets to establish a museum. In contrast to her, Poghossyan assures that there are carpets enough to open more than one museum.

Poghossyan states that the carpet making culture originated in the Armenian Highland, and that the Armenian carpet making culture plays an exceptional role in the Eastern carpet making tradition. The carpet making tools excavated in the Armenian Highland go back to 5-4 milleniums BC. Poghossyan is sure about the Armenian origin of the 2500 year-old carpet ‘’Pazirik’’, which was dug out in Mountainous Altai in 1949 and is now kept in the State Hermitage Museum. The pictures on the carpet, as well as the colouring material made in Ararat Plain tedstify to its being purely Armenian, but foreign specialists express their doubt as to whether it is Armenian, Turkish, Persian or Kurdish.

One can find facts about the image and fame of Armenian carpets in the works of Arab historians, who mention that, in the early Middle Ages, from Marocco to China, having an Armenian carpet meant that the family belonged to the ruling elite. It was a great honour to be presented with an Armenian carpet.

After the fall of the Armenian State, the whole region was flooded with Muslim tribes, as a result carpet making in Armenia declined. Hence, carpet manufacturing was replaced by handicraft carpet making, and the tribes settled in Armenia appropriated the art of Armenian carpet making.

In the 1920ties, carpet museums, research centers were established both in Azerbaijan and in Turkey. Due to international wide campaign, the world got to know the Turkish carpet as a sample of the Eastern carpet making culture.

According to the ethnographer, it is not late to restore the cultural heritage which is getting lost. ‘’Especially in conditions of globalization the carpet museum is a necessity. It is never late, but the international recognition of the Armenian carpet and its evaluation will get more and more difficult. It can’t be done in a year, in ten years. It may be done in decades with the support of  high officials. It is not realistic to gain success by individual work.’’, said A Poghossyan.

Since 1983 three international conferences devoted to carpet making have been held in Azerbaijan, and the fourth one is expected in 2011. A sum of 700 thousand euros has been allotted to this conference. But Armenia has never held even a local conference on carpet making.

There are 12 carpet museums in Azerbaijan, of which 10 were established after the independence. As for Turkey, it has a few dozens of such museums.

Poghossyan mentions that financial interests are of primary importance nowadays, so the denial of the Armenian carpet is performed with the Turkish and Azerbaijan interference. Besides foreign specialists are not that interested in the origin of carpet making, their interests are merely commercial. It is our cultural heritage and it is we who should be interested in preserving it. There are a number of works to be published, among them ‘’Armenian Carpet Making Culture’’, ‘’Artsakh Carpet Making Culture’’, ‘’The Typology of Armenian Carpets’’, which cover the answers of many questions.

P.S.

It should be noted that the UNESCO list includes Armenian duduk and cross-stone culture, as for mugham, ‘’Novruz’’ (a holiday celebrated in Turkish, Indian and Muslim cultures), and the bard art, they are ascribed to Azerbaijan.