Your trusted source

Several oligarch-officials in Azerbaijan take tambourine stones and fragments of rock carvings dating back thousands of years from Gobustan National Historical - Artistic Preserve and place them in their summer cottages, Minval.az Azerbaijani news portal reports.

The article reads that in this way the oligarchs create corners of antiquity in their own houses. “This is the latest fad among the Baku oligarchs. The Azerbaijani rich bring antique musical instruments - harp, lyre, lute, bagpipes, flutes, etc. from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, India, Turkey, Italy, Greece and other countries. However, there is another antique there too. Several of them consider it a good form to add to their collection “trophies” from Gobustan National Historical - Artistic Preserve,” the portal notes.

As it is stated in the article, there are more than 40 tambourine stones in Gobustan National Preserve, located in the territories of Nakhijevan and Maraza, but not all of them are officially registered. In Gobustan two large tambourine stones are officially registered and protected: Boyukdash and a stone in Jingirdag, also Gavaldash. “While the smaller stones by various means are taken to the villas belonging to Azerbaijani oligarchs,” the source notes.

Historian and investigator Shakir Gabissanli states that so far they have found 34 such stones. However, those stones are not listed in the Gobustan map and are not protected by the Preserve.