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On May 19, the RA NA Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Diaspora, Youth and Sport in the first reading debated the draft law on Making Amendment and Addendum to the Law on Preservation and Use of Immovable Monuments of History and Culture and Historical Environment with the enclosed package. The goal of the draft law is to ensure the preservation of the historical-cultural monuments, as well as to exclude the alienation of the historical-cultural monuments after the law comes into force. The authors expect that the alienation of the venues of the historical-cultural monuments will be rules out, as well as the rights of those who obtained those places and carry out the construction, agricultural or other works.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport Arayik Khzmalyan considered the package out of date. He agreed that though regulations are set aimed at the preservation of the historical-cultural monuments, nevertheless there are gaps in the sphere. According to him, today in the republic there are about 25.000 buildings of historical-cultural value are known, but there are data about 200 ones, therefore the adoption of the MPs’ initiative will cause numerous problems and will make them face unsolved and the most complicated problems.

The Deputy Minister urged the legislators not to hurry and touch upon the debate of the issue later, getting acquainted with the viewpoints of all stakeholders. “The idea is acceptable, however there are no mechanisms and relevant resources for it,” the Deputy Minister concluded.

Some of the Committee members think that the sphere has not been studied in depth, and the initiative in this form cannot regulate the issue of the preservation of the historical-cultural values in the territories sold before.

Taking into consideration the sounded concerns, the authors postponed the voting on the package. By the Committee Chair’s proposal, a decision was made to set up a working group for discussing all problematic issues.