Ani ruins used as pasture by Turkish villagers
Ani ruins are used as pasture by Turkish villagers, Turkish website Sondakika.com reports.
Four security officers working on that territory fail to carry out their responsibilities properly, and therefore villagers unimpededly enter the territory of the ancient Armenian capital to pasture cattle there, the website reports.
It is reported that Hakan Doganay, Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Kars Province, periodically meets with residents of Ani’s neighboring village Ocakli and explains to them the historic and cultural significance of Ani ruins in the region’s economic development.
Doganay demands that villagers take care of ancient monuments and not pasture cattle there, because Ani ruins could boost tourism in the region and in Ocakli, in particular.