Մասնակից:Sununa/Ավազարկղ

Vardan Astsatryan (հայերեն՝ Վարդան Վլադիմիրի Ասծատրյան; born January 29, 1974) is an Armenian collector of works of art, founder of the Shushi Carpet Museum, economist, lawyer, international law specialist and businessman, who served as Adviser to Artsakh President Bako Sahakyan from 2009 to 2015. Vardan Astsatryan was a participant in the Artsakh Liberation War (1991-1994), the Four-Day War (2016) and the Armenian-Azerbaijani War (2020).

Biography

Vardan Astsatryan was born on January 29, 1974 in Stepanakert, the capital of the Nagorno Karabakh Autonomous Region, to a family of a civil servant. He received his secondary education at Stepanakert Secondary School No. 3 after Griboyedov (1980-1990). In 1990-1995, he studied at the Faculty of Economics of the Yerevan Institute of National Economy.

In 1992, he volunteered to fight in the Artsakh Liberation War. In 1992-1994, he served as an officer and commander of an intelligence platoon.

After graduating from the university, he joined the Artsakh Special Programs Department (Artsakh Committee), where he served from 1995 to 1997. Afterwards, he was engaged in business until 2008. During that time, in 2006-2010, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law of Artsakh Mesrop Mashtots University. In parallel with his studies in the final year, he taught financial law at the same university (2009-2010).

In the summer of 2008, by the decision of the Ministry of Social Affairs of Artsakh, a concept of resettlement in Artsakh needed to be developed. Vardan Astsatryan developed the concept with relevant feasibility studies. After it was approved by the Security Council,  Vardan Astsatryan was appointed Advisor to the President of Artsakh Bako Sahakyan on February 5, 2009, and head of the Economic Department. He held this position until July 23, 2015.

On September 2, 2011, Artsakh Independence Day, Vardan Astsatryan established a carpet museum in Shushi, which exhibited carpets purchased with his own funds from Artsakh villages in the early 2000s. Some carpets have a history of hundreds of years.

These carpets are those left in Artsakh, the owners of which had not sold them to the carpet sellers, but when they learnt it was for a museum, they sold them. And without this mindset of the people, this museum would hardly have come to be․ - Vardan Astsatryan

During the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in 2020, a few days before the capture of Shushi, Vardan Astsatryan organized the evacuation and transportation of the most valuable exhibits of the Shushi Carpet Museum to Yerevan. He managed to evacuate about 160 carpets, more than 30 pottery items, and more than 50 paintings, which were all exhibits of great cultural value. The exhibits found a temporary shelter at Alexander Tamanyan National Museum-Institute of Architecture in Yerevan.

Founder of Shushi Carpet Museum

Vardan Astsatryan has been interested in antiquities since he was very young. Later, when he heard many stories and then personally witnessed the Azeris going through the villages of Artsakh, trying to buy or exchange ancestral rugs from the villagers, Vardan Astsatryan began to worry about preserving the cultural layer of Armenian carpets, thinking of saving the traditional Artsakh carpets from oblivion and the danger of being appropriated by Azerbaijan [17]. He began to study in depth the Armenian art and culture, as well as fine arts and painting, showing great interest especially in antiques [18]. In 2000, he began collecting carpets from Armenian villages and Armenian families and writing down their history[14].

From the beginning, the collection was his personal initiative. The first items in the collection were the "Honey bee" rug and the "Bee swarm" carpet made by his paternal grandmother. At the initiative of Vardan Astsatryan and with the support of the Shushi Art Center Foundation, the Shushi Museum of Carpets was established to make the carpets available to public viewing and show the cultural values of carpet weaving. [3]

The Carpet Museum was founded in Shushi on September 2, 2011, Artsakh's Independence Day. For two years, the exhibits were displayed at 31 Ghazanchetsots Street, Shushi, and then on the first floor of the Shushi Art Center at 58 Ghazanchetsots.[19]

The exhibits of the museum were about 300 handmade carpets created from the 17th to 20th centuries, as well as antique household items. Displayed in the museum were also tools used for carpet weaving: antique weaving looms, spinning wheels, spindles, etc., which presented the history of carpet weaving. The mere existence of a weaving loom is a clear proof that only a sedentary nation could be engaged in carpet weaving. As Astsatryan mentions, " You install the weaving loom once and for all. It is like a child taking the piano to class. It’s illogical.”[16]

Պատկերասրահ

• Armenian carpets from Shushi Carpet Museum. Vardan Astsatryan's personal collection.
• 
  «Ծաղկագորգ», գործվել է Շուշի քաղաքում, 19-րդ դարի երկրորդ կեսին
• 
  «Ծաղկագորգ», գործվել է Հադրութի շրջանի Ծակուռի գյուղում, 19 դարի երկրորդ կեսին
• 
  Carpet Astghatap (Starfall), mid-19th century, Mushkapat, Martuni region
• 
  Embroidery Shoghshoghun Khach (Shining Cross), 17th century, Shosh village, Askeran region
• 
  Carpet Metamorphosis, second half of the 19th century, Berdashen, Askeran region
• 
  Carpets from Shushi Carpet Museum, Vardan Astsatryan's personal collection
• 
  Vishapagorg (Carpet with dragons), early 19th century, Taghut, Hadrut region
• 
  Vishapagorg (Carpet with dragons), mid-19th century, Shahmasur, Martakert region
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  Carpet Stars, first half of the 19th century, Astghashen, Askeran region
• 
  Carpet Patkeragorg (picture carpet), 1903, Norshen, Martuni region
• 
  Aghaksak (Salt bag), mid-19th century, Mets Tagher, Hadrut region

See also

• Shushi Carpet Museum