A porn video shot in Yerevan’s Erebuni Fortress took Armenian media by storm on 30 July, driving the Russian couple who created it to issue an apology shortly after.

Stanislav Mametov, who shot the video with his wife, apologised for making the film, saying they did not intend to insult Armenians.

‘Dear Armenian people, I ask your forgiveness for our actions. We didn’t understand that Erebuni Fortress is a sacred place’, Mametov said in a video address. He added that he immediately deleted the video from the PornHub site where it was uploaded, as he realised it had outraged people. He promised not to create ‘such content’ again.

The video was shot in Erebuni Fortress, an ancient fortified Urartian city that dates back to the 8th century BCE. Archaeologists consider Erebuni to be a precursor city to modern-day Yerevan.

The Yerevan City Hall stated it would apply to the police to open an investigation into the case and hold the couple responsible ‘regardless of their citizenship’, and police began their investigation shortly after. Armenian laws prohibit the creation and publication of pornographic material.

According to Sputnik Armenia, Mametov and his wife, Tanya Shmarzhevskaya, came to Armenia on holiday and have since left Yerevan and settled in another city but ‘did not know’ how to return home. 

However, the director of the Erebuni Fortress Museum, Mikayel Badalyan, speculated that the video was most likely recorded before 24 June, when they began excavations in the area, none of which were visible in the video.

Badalyan said that although the police were responsible for security at the site and that he could easily put the blame on them, he was still the ‘main person responsible for the incident’.

‘If a superior body finds that I should resign from my position, then I will do so unconditionally’, he said.