On 4 April 2006, the Press Service of the State Hermitage released the following statement.

The State Hermitage announces that the museum's director, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Piotrovsky visited Yerevan from 21 to 24 March 2006 at the invitation of the Caucasus Institute of Democracy.

The Hermitage has successful experience presenting exhibitions and conducting research programs in the regions of Russia and in neighboring countries. It is continuing the policy of "filling the cultural space" and has begun a series of projects with countries of the Community of Independent States. In particular, there are ongoing productive discussions with museum managers and archeologists from the Ukraine, Belarus and Tajikistan regarding joint programs.

Mikhail Piotrovsky delivered lectures in the Yerevan State University and the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) State University. He visited the Echmiadzin Treasury, the Matenadaran Institute of Ancient Manuscripts, the National Picture Gallery and the Museum of History.

Within the scope of the visit, the Director of the Hermitage was received by President of Armenia Robert Kocharyan. There were also meetings between Mikhail Piotrovsky and the His Holiness Garegin II Catholicos of All Armenians, the Minister of Culture of Armenia Gevork Gevorkyan and the Russian Ambassador to Armenia Nikolai Pavlov. These meetings were directed at restoring Russian-Armenian relations and supporting the use of the Russian language in Armenia. There was discussion of creating an art restoration school in Yerevan similar to what has been established in Yekaterinburg, where Hermitage restorers deliver lectures each year and perform work for their colleagues from the Urals. Other subjects included delivery of lectures by Russian specialists at the Russian-Armenian State University and Yerevan University, as well as holding a scholarly conference dedicated to the memory of Boris Piotrovsky to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of a scholar and archeologist who did so much for the development of archeological research in the Caucasus and in particular investigation of the state of Urart.

The State Hermitage also announces that Mikhail Piotrovsky's public statements relating to the history of Armenia (see below) elicited an inappropriate reaction from the leadership of the Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan, which distributed an official statement to the mass media (see below). The State Hermitage expresses its inability to understand the cause for such a reaction on the part of several highly placed officials whose specific position on ethnic policies can harm the reputation of Azerbaijan in international cultural circles.

ÈÀ REGNUM 27 March 2006

"The destruction of Armenian monuments in Nakhichevan is a crime, all the more so if there were political reasons behind this," declared the Director of the State Hermitage, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Mikhail Piotrovsky on 21 March at a press conference in Yerevan. Mikhail Piotrovsky added that cultural heritage cannot belong to any one group: "the cultural heritage of Armenia and Azerbaijan and other countries as well belongs to everyone," he remarked. "When what is happening concerns only politics or economics, then one can be silent about many issuås, but when the historical legacy of mankind is involved, countries and organizations should categorically condemn this," he declared.

ÈÀ REGNUM 27 March 2006

The Ministry of Culture of Azerbaijan suggests that Academician Piotrovsky acquaint himself with the list of Azerbaijan monuments that have been destroyed by Armenians

In the course of his visit in Yerevan, Corresponding Member of the RF Academy of Sciences, Director of the State Heritage Mikhail Piotrovsky condemned the alleged "destruction of Armenian khachkars" in the Dzhulfinsk district of Nakhchyvan (Azerbaijan) and considered this to be destruction of historical and cultural monuments generally. With respect to Piotrovsky's remarks, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan has issued a statement, which says:

...The Ministry of Culture and Tourism again expresses its conviction that what Piotrovsky has said in no way reflects the positions held on this matter by well-known and honest Russian professional historians. Moreover, if we consider that Mr. Piotrovsky's love for Armenian culture can be traced back to his upbringing by his Armenian mother, Ripsime Dzhanpoladyan, and to the love of his father, Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, archeologist and orientalist Boris Piotrovsky for Armenian material culture, then in this sense his approach to well-known historical facts should not surprise Azerbaijani society in the slightest. The Ministry again expresses its certainty that the so-called "researchers" and "historians" who are trying to falsify history and who have their own special nationalist approach to the actual historical facts will never be accepted anywhere as objective and honest scholars and representatives of the intelligentsia. History does not recognize falsifications and does not forgive lies."