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“Around 5 or 6 Armenians currently live in Salmast, Iran, while the adjacent villages have been totally stripped of the Armenian population. The Armenian school in Salmast town operated until 1970,” the Director of Research on Armenian Architecture Foundation (RAA) Samvel Karapetyan told reporters on Friday at a press conference.

Karapetyan, whose Foundation investigates and documents Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic of Armenia, namely in Historical Armenia (the Armenian districts of Turkey, Iran, Georgia and Azerbaijan) informed about the two volumes of the newly-published series dedicated to ancient Armenian provinces. The first one titled “Hayots Dzor” (Armenian Gorge) devoted to Vaspurakan province and the second one named “Salmast”. The third volume which is planned to be released in the coming year is devoted to Artskhe community located in the area of Lake Van. In total, 36 volumes are planned to be published corresponding to the number of letters in the Armenian alphabet.

“Thus far, only one brief book has been published telling the story of Salmast, released in 1906 in New Jugha. No work has been published over the past 110 years. Our book is the first publication after the long break. The book also tells the story of the cemetery of Payajuk village in Salmast, where the mother of renowned Armenian novelist Raffi is buried,” Karapetyan said.

The researcher next presented the newly released book named “Azerbaijan: Enemy of civilization,” covering documented cases of Azerbaijani vandalism against Armenian cultural heritage.