The monument is made from volcanic tuff and depicts an old man and woman hewn from rock, representing the mountain people of Karabakh. It is known colloquially as "Tatik-Papik" (տատիկ-պապիկ) in Armenian and "Dedo-Babo" (Դեդո-Բաբո) in the Karabakh dialect, which translates as "Grandmother and Grandfather". The sculpture is prominent in Artsakh's coat of arms.[2]
On 29 September 2023, Azerbaijani officials placed the flag of Azerbaijan on the monument, on the same day of the Azerbaijani takeover of Stepanakert,[3] after the Azerbaijani military offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh undertaken ten days earlier and the subsequent flight of the Armenian population.[4] Concerns were raised that Azerbaijan could demolish the monument.[5][6][7] Instead the Azeri government would appropriate the monument, claiming that "it was built in the city of Khankendi in Azerbaijan in 1967 and that it is one of the many examples of Azerbaijan's tolerance of multicultural and national-religious monument" while also claiming that the monument was "Armenianized" and had always truly been an Azeri symbol.[8]
5 Artsakh dram coin with Tatik Papik.Plaque about the 2013 restoration.
During the Eurovision Song Contest 2009, We Are Our Mountains was included, among other local symbols, in the introductory "postcard" preceding the Armenian performance. Representatives from Azerbaijan complained to the European Broadcasting Union about the use of the monument in the Armenian intro, since the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh is de jure part of Azerbaijan.[9] In response to the complaint, the image was edited out of the video in the finals. In response, Armenia displayed images of the monument on a video screen in the background, and on the back of the clipboard held by its spokesperson Sirusho.[10]
