Azerbaijan, Baku / Trend corr. S.Jaliloglu / Jeyran Bayramova, the director of the Karabakh carpet weaving plant, stated on 9 August that Armenians appropriated the designs of Azerbaijani carpets in have been kept in 14 carpet weaving shops, situated in the Azerbaijani territories occupied by the Armenian Armed Forces.
According to Bayramova, Armenians are weaving carpets similar to Karabakh samples of 'Khanlig' and 'Shasha', 'Nalbaki gul', Ag chichaklar' and many others and are selling them in European countries, and exhibiting them as 'Karabakh carpets of Armenia'. Bayramova added that the price for a carpet with the Karabakh design is about €3,000.
After being occupied, 24 people are working in the Barda carpet plant. Karabakh carpet shops were established in the 18th Century in private houses. The Karabakh carpet plant uniting 500 people was opened in 1939. Weaving of the Karabakh carpets began in the Agdam, Shusha, Khankandi, Khojali, Jabrail and Lachin regions of Azerbaijan from 1956.
The conflict between the two countries of South Caucasus began in 1988 due to territorial claims by Armenia against Azerbaijan. Armenia has occupied 20% of the Azerbaijani land including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding Districts. Since 1992, these territories have been under the occupation of the Armenian Forces. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France and USA) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.