As part of the memory of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide the Armenian Genocide Museum opened its doors. Reconstruction works began in 2011. The total are of museum is 2.5 thousand square meters and now it has 12 display rooms instead of previous 3. For the first in Armenia were employed a new technologies, design approaches and solutions which widely are used in world's museums common practices. Today the permanent collection includes thousands of new exhibits found and purchased in the last 7-8 years. Some are presented in printed form, others by means of projectors and touch screens. There are unique photographs, books. The exhibition consists of 52 main sections and there are more than 90 thousand exhibits there, the largest collection in the world on Armenian Genocide. The Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial, the Museum and the adjoining areas renovation and reconstruction works were funded by Tsitsernakaberd charitable foundation and cost US$ 4,5 million. The chairman of the Board of Trustees is President of RA Serzh Sargsyan.

The pride of any nation is its historical past. Armenia, which has a rich historical and cultural past, is of great interest to the whole world. It is no secret that every Armenian visiting the Erebuni Museum feels a sense of pride and excitement, and at the same time, there are a number of questions that the director of the Museum-Reserve Mikael Badalyan did not manage to answer during our first interview. - Mr. Badalyan, are there any new discoveries during the excavations of recent years that the public does not yet know about? - Yes, there are. Under this soil there is a square basalt basin built in the Urartian period. Can you imagine what a wave of interest this will cause if we open a pool and a recently discovered sewer with basalt pipes? During the joint Armenian-French excavations of 2014-2016, the foundations of the temple, which belong to an earlier period, were discovered under the columned hall. Besides, during excavations, terass-shaped structures were discovered, which were again covered with soil… Since the Urartian temples had square layouts, we assume that this is a temple, because it has a very solid foundation. We intend to continue the excavations in summer … The excavations also showed that an earthquake happened here during the Urartian period. At least two earthquakes were recorded here, the first of which dates back to the first half of the 7th century B.C. when the ancient city of Karmir Blur or Teishebaini was built. And there in Karmir blur shields and pedestals were found, on which it is written Erebuni. That is why we assume that the earthquake could be one of the reasons that at some point these items were moved from here to Karmir Blur. In 2010, together with the German archeologists, we conducted geomagnetic studies on a hill in the territory of reserve. The studies showed, that underground there is a building 120m long and 60m wide, with large and small rooms. In 2019 together with the French group we scanned the same part with the help of Lidar scanner, and our assumption was confirmed. - How do you see the solution to the problem of the fortress maintenance? - I think the emergency sites need to be reinforced first. The second stage is the preservation and reconstruction of the excavations in the volume in which they exist. I am talking about the Urartian Street, the columned hall, the temple, the drainage system, the pottery hall, which we dug up, and again covered with soil. So these are sites, which are of great interest to the visitors. The Erebuni fortress is a complex structure, since during excavations, buildings of different eras are discovered, one erected on the other, which gives rise to scientific debates. For example, the columned hall dates to the post-Urartian period of the kingdom Yervanduni, and the Susi temple - the amphora hall of King Argishti I, most likely belongs to a different era. We plan to use the land sifted from the excavations this fall at the Land Art Festival dedicated to one of the founders of the world land art, Marcos Grigorian. The participants of the festival will be well-known artists Narek Avetisyan and Arthur Oshakantsi, as well as specialists from Iran. Recently, our guest was the choreographer Rudolf Kharatyan. After the tour, we had an interesting idea to organize the staging of the Urartu ritual in the Erebuni fortress this fall.

In December 2019, the Council of Elders of Yerevan approved a cooperation agreement signed on October 3 by Mayor of Yerevan Hayk Marutyan and the “John and Sos Balian Foundation” on the construction of a new building of the Historical and Archaeological Museum-Reserve Erebuni. The modern building must fit the entire architecture and at the same time be equipped with the latest technologies. The new building will have scientific laboratories, new exhibition halls for animated expositions, where the visitors will get acquainted with the history of Yerevan with the help of virtual tours. The total project will cost more than 1.65 million USD. The idea itself is good, but given the current state of the complex, the question arises of how urgent and important it is to build a new building, since the complex already has its finished appearance. The director of museum-preserve Mikael Badalyan told us, that the new building will be two or three storey, depended on financing. - Mr. Badalyan, are there any plans to restore the Fortress? - There are. And we believe that such projects should be carefully considered by specialists, since Erebuni is the visiting card of Yerevan, and this is the case when we do not have a right for any mistake. - In recent years, the state of Erebuni Fortress has worsened։ everywhere there are earth mounds, boards, firewood… Is this the result of recent excavations? - No, we clean up carefully after each excavation ... Nevertheless, here we have boards, that are part of the Urartian columned hall … We tried to lift them, but they are too heavy, so we need appropriate equipment, which implies extra costs. Now we are considering the possibility of their disposal in the courtyard of the museum… As for the earth mounds and woods, we already tried to remove everything as far as our funds allowed us. We plan to continue cleaning in spring, however, these works are associated with high financial costs … And yet, we have done a great job. For example, the museum did not have drinking water, which was a serious obstacle for visitors. We have solved the problem with CJSC “Veolia Jur” with the support of the French Embassy in Armenia … In the nearest future we plan to install three-dimensional stands. For this we use the museum budget and also work with donors. By the way, the installed stands will greatly improve the situation.... Imagine, that you look at the columned hall and see only anchors of columns, walls. It is interesting for the specialists, but the visitors will not be impressed. And when they see a three-dimensional image, photographs, a plan of buildings in three languages, this will have a great impression on tourists and local visitors … In the museum itself the visitors will watch the exhibition, but in the new building they will gain additional knowledge through an animated show.