Researcher Samvel Karapetyan has been posthumously honored with Movses Khorenatsi medal for his contribution to the development of culture. President Armen Sarkissian has signed a relevant decree on the occasion of 29th anniversary of independence.
Historian, researcher and author Samvel Karapetyan passed away on February 27, aged 58.
Born in 1961, Samvel Karapetian was an expert of medieval architecture, specializing in the study of the historical monuments of Armenia, Nagorno-Karabakh and neighboring countries.
He surveyed and catalogued thousands of artifacts of Armenian history and architecture during the course of more than two decades.
Karapetyan headed the Yerevan branch of the Research on Armenian Architecture NGO.
Karapetyan was also known as an outspoken critic of the treatment of Armenian monuments in Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan․
He presented his findings to US Congress in 2007 and to the European Court of Human Rights in 2008․
In 2007 he won the Armenian Presidential Humanitarian Sciences Prize for his work in literature.
Khorenatsi Medals have also been awarded to children’s writer Liparit Sargsyan, journalist and translator Madlena Garagashian (Romania), literary critic and translator Albert Musheghyan, composer Vache Sarafyan, painter Haghtanak Shahumyan, soloist of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater Hasmik Grigorian.
