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More than 80 percent of Armenian cultural monuments need renovation, Mkrtich Minasyan, chairman of the Union of Architects of Armenia, has told Panorama.am.  

“The Ministry of Culture has lowered the issue to fourth-class importance, while, considering the uniqueness of the monuments for our country, it should have been a priority issue,” Minasyan said.

To tackle the problem, the official proposes establishing a body involving architects, builders and restorers.

He reminded that General Department for Protection and Use of Monuments was established in the 1980s, the first body of the kind in the Soviet period. The department worked for 10 years, and did great work, he said.

There are 24,500 cultural monuments in Armenia. Of them, 18,000 are under state protection, the rest are private-owned. 40 percent of monuments have republican and 60 percent local significance.