Samvel Karapetian is an Armenian

Armenians

Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....

 historian, researcher, author, and expert of medieval architecture, specializing in the study of the historical monuments of Armenia

Armenia

Armenia , officially the Republic of Armenia , is a landlocked mountainous country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia...

, Nagorno Karabakh and other regions of the Southern Caucasus. He has surveyed and catalogued thousands of artifacts of Armenian history and architecture during the course of more than two decades. Karapetyan is currently head of the Yerevan

Yerevan

Yerevan is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously-inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and industrial center of the country...

 branch of the NGO Research on Armenian Architecture

Research on Armenian Architecture

Research on Armenian Architecture, sometimes abbreviated to RAA, is an international non-governmental organization that monitors and studies Armenian monuments located outside the borders of the present-day Republic of Armenia, such as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, Turkey and elsewhere...

 (RAA).
Karapetyan is also known as an outspoken critic of the treatment of Armenian monuments in Turkey: he argues that Turkey has a policy of intentional neglect and planned destruction. He has also presented evidence that accuses Georgia

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 and Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

 of deliberately destroying Armenian historical monuments. He presented his findings to US Congress in 2007 and to the European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

 in 2008.

In 2007 he won the Armenian Presidential Humanitarian Sciences Prize for his work in literature.

Published works

Բուն Աղվանքի հայերեն վիմագրերը (Armenian Lapidary Inscriptions in Caucasian Albania Proper). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 1997. Վրաց Պետական Քաղաքականությունը և հայ մշակույթի հուշարձանները, 1988-1998 (Georgian State Policy and Historical Armenian Monuments, 1988-1998). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 1998.

• Armenian Cultural Monuments in the Region of Karabakh. Trans. Anahit Martirossian. Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2001. Ջավախքի Պատմական Հուշարձանները (The Historical Monuments of Javakhk
  Javakheti
  Javakheti is a historical region of the nation of Georgia, in the southeastern part of the country's Samtskhe-Javakheti province. Today it comprises the Akhalkalaki and Ninotsminda municipal territories. It was historically bordered in the west with both sides of the Mtkvari river, in the north,...
  
  ). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2001.Կովկասյան թանգարանի Հայկական հավաքածուն (The Armenian Collection of the Caucasian Museum). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004. Հյուսիսային Արցախ (Northern Artsakh). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004. Հայերը Կախեթում (The Armenians of Kakhetia). Yerevan: Gitutiun Publishing, 2004.