We can hear of destruction of Surb Nshan church any day, specialist of monuments states

Specialist of monuments Samvel Karapetyan stated today that the Surb Nshan Armenian church in Tbilisi “is in a deplorable state and we can hear of its destruction any day”.

Addressing a press conference today, the specialist recalled that there were 2 fires in the church 0- in 2002 and in January 2012 and in both cases the fire was extinguished with water, Mediamax reports.

“Fire in historic monuments should only be put out either with foam or with sand”, he noted.

Samvel Karapetyan last visited Surb Nshan church in April 2012 and according to his data the crack in the front part of the church has stretched, the prayers hall subsided and the tiled roof got out of whack.

“Based on the agreement concluded between the Armenian and Georgian sides in January 2012, there should have been repairs after the cleaning works in the church. During my latest visit, I saw that wooden and iron piers were installed to support the church but they didn’t help and the forechurch wrecked several days ago”, he said.

At the same time, the monuments specialist noted that “the church may still be saved if there is a desire to do so”.

“There are many churches in Tbilisi and rains and earthquakes can’t only inflict damage to Armenian churches. The problem is that only the Armenian churches are in deplorable and neglected state”, he said.