Islamic State follows Turkey in its policy of destruction of ancient cultural monuments, Head of the Research on Armenian Architecture Fund (RAA) Samvel Karapetyan told ArmInfo's correspondent.
"The anti cultural policy conduced by Turkey throughout recent100 years is in no way different from the same policy of Islamic State. Turkey was the groundbreaker in destruction of cultural monuments and all the others including Islamic State are its followers", Karapetyan emphasized.
The expert pointed attention to the fact that according to preliminary calculations 175 thousand Armenian monuments existed on the territory of Western Armenia till 1915. "Only 2-3% of them have remained and most of them are partly ruined", he informed.
According to him, Turkey currently makes certain steps to maintain the ancient Armenian monuments only aiming to conceal the cultural genocide conduced in recent decades.
Research on Armenian Architecture is an international non-governmental organization that monitors and studies Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic ofArmenia, such as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere. It has published numerous volumes on Armenian architecture and organizes occasional exhibitions and talks