Mr. Shavarsh Kocharyan appointed as new Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia

August 2, 2008 President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on appointing Mr. Shavarsh Kocharyan as Deputy Foreign Minister of Armenia. 

Ambassdor Gabrielyan visits Armenian Youth Camp

22-29 July, 2008 Homenentmen London held its annual 25th Scouts Camp in Gillwell Park, Chingford. Over 80 participants, from the age of 6 to 18 and their leaders took part in the exciting event, leaving the city comfort behind for a lively sports and activities week, learning scouting skills and interacting with other Armenian students.

Attending the camp on July 27th, Ambassador Gabrielyan took part in inspecting of the lines and, addressing the Scouts and attending parents after the Flag Ceremony, emphasized the importance of such campings both as skills and character-enhancing event for young people and as additional opportunity for an Armenian upbringing. He referred to frequent youth gatherings and camps in Armenia and called on the London Scouts to take part in them more frequently.

Homenentmen's London branch was established 25 years ago. It has over 250 members of which around 80 are athlets and 120 are Scouts. They participate in regular weekly events and have their football and basketball teams both for boys and girls.

For more photos please click here.

100 days of Serzh Sargsyan's Presidency

July 21, 2008. On the occasion of his 100 days in office President Serzh Sargsyan addressed the public on July 18, 2008, summarizing the accomplished works and highlighting the priorities on the development agenda for Armenia.

The President also answered dozens of questions on related and other topics at a press-conference invited for the same occasion on July 21st.

The see the full text of the address, please click here. 

Robert Kocharyan's Presidency Account Published

July 16, 2008. Former President Robert Kocharyan published a book, "Armenia 1998-2007" about the achievements of his ten-year presidency. Typically for the previous President, the book is an account that speaks in figures and statistics and is not a literary piece. Currently the book is available in bookstores in Armenia.

 Exhibition "Armenian Type Now" 

July 5th, 2008, Lincoln. An exhibition entitled “Armenian Type Now” was opened in the Wren Library of Lincoln Cathedral on Saturday 5th of July 2008. Mrs. Carolyn Puzzovio, Principal Lecturer at the Lincoln School of Art and Design introduced to the audience a brief history of Armenia and the Armenian Alphabet. Mr. Edik Ghabuzyan, the head of Department Creation and Preservation of the Armenian Fonts at the Ministry of Culture of Armenia, spoke about the new trends in the Armenian typography.
Addressing the meeting, Ambassador Gabrielyan thanked the University of Lincoln, the Lincoln Cathedral, the city authorities and the Participants from Armenia for organizing the important cultural event. The Ambassador spoke about the paramount role that the Armenian Alphabet has played throughout the centuries in preserving the national and cultural identity of the Armenian people.
In course of his visit to Lincoln the Ambassador also held meetings with Cllr. Ron Hills, the Mayor of Lincoln; The Rt. Hon Gillian Merron,the Member of Parliament from Lincoln - who is also the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State in DFID and the Dean of Lincoln, the Very Reverend Philip Buckler.
The exhibition will last from Monday 7th to Saturday 12th  of July, 2008. 

To see further pictures of the event, please click here.

Jivan Gasparyan Opens Nelson Mandela's Birthday Concert in London

June 27th, 2008. Jivan Gasparyan, the renowned duduk player, was the first performer at Nelson Mandela's 90th anniversary concert held in Hyde Park. London.  A constellation of international stars

participated in the charity event that had attracted more than fifty thousand viewers to Hyde Park and was watched by tens of millions worldwide. Jivan Gasparyan rose to world fame by his masterly performance on the duduk, the Armenian wooden flute, usually made from apricot-tree, especially by playing in scores of internationally acclaimed films, such as The Gladiator. Himself 80 years old this year, Jivan returned to the scene a few acts later to perform with Zucchero, the Italian rock singer.

All the five million pounds raised at the concert will go to Mr. Mandela's charity 46664 that aimes at raising awareness of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Mrs. Hranush Hakobyan appointed as new Head of the State Committee for relations  with Diaspora of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia.                     

June 27, 2008 President Sargsyan signed a decree on appointing Mrs. Hranush Hakobyan as new Head of the State Committee for relations with Diaspora of the Armenian Foreign Ministry. Prior to this appointment, Mrs. Hakobyan, MP from Armenian Republican Party, has been the Chair of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science, Education, Culture, Youth and Sport.

A new Ministry of Diaspora Affairs is established in Armenia.

June 21st, 2008. President Serzh Sargsyan signed a decree on establishing a new Ministry of Diaspora Affairs. The decree will come into force from 1st of July, 2008 and the Ministry will become a part of the Government of the Republic of Armenia from 1st of October, 2008.

Announcements:

ArmRobotics - Armenian Robots Open Championship, organised by The Union of Information Technology Enterprises (UITE), is to be held in Yerevan this year. The competition has several stages and the final phase will take place on the 22 December, 2008. Please clich here for the information about the championship.

The Sixth Pan Armenian Youth conference, organised by the “Pan-Armenian International Youth Center Foundation”, is to be held in Armenia from 3 to 8 August, 2008.
Please click here for the information about the conference and the registration form.

The Third Pan-Armenian festival of culture "One Nation, One Culture" will be held in the Republic of Armenia as well as in Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), from 17th to 23rd August 2008. It will be a festival of fine arts, music, choreography, literature and traditional folk arts. The festival is organised by the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the "One Nation, One Culture" foundation.
The festival provides an excellent opportunity to present the worldwide Armenian culture in Armenia, and will serve as a forum for joint discussions on cultural issues.
Individual performers and ensembles, as well as representatives of Armenian cultural organisations are invited to participate. 
Please click here for more details and application forms.

An International conference under  the auspices of UNESCO will take place in October as the 2008 was declared to be the year of Saroyan. Several dozens of events envisaged by the program  time-table will be carried throughout the year in Armenia (Yerevan and regions) and the USA ( Fresno - where the writer was born).
For further information please click here.

The UNESCO Chair- Life Sciences International Postgraduate Educational Center under the auspices of the Government of Nagorno Karabakh is organizing a Pan-Armenian Conference of Biologist dedicated to the 20th anniversary of independence of Artsakh to be held in Stepanakert from 17 to 19 of October 2008. 
For more information about  the UNESCO Chair- Life Sciences International Postgraduate Educational Center click here.
Please click here for the conference announcement and the application form.

In commemoration of the 90th anniversary of the Sardarapat battle, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Education and Science; and Trade and Economic Development of Armenia, in association with the "Sardarapat" Memorial-museum, have developed a plan of a pan-Armenian guide tour - "To Sardarapat, the cradle of victories". Guided excursions are organized, including to the memorial-museum "Sardarapat" from April 1 to December 31, 2008.

Hayastan All-Armenian Fund of Great Britain in association with the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in London presents the Choir of "Young Singers of Armenia" in a charity concert, which will take place on Saturday, November 8, 2008 at St. John's, Smith Square, London SW1P 3HA.

Click here for the leaflet of the concert.

The annual training courses of the Armenian language and literature for teachers working outside Armenia will be organized by the Ministry of Education and Science this year from July 18th to August 16th in Yerevan. For more information on the event and to download the application form, please click here.

Ambassador Gabrielyan responds to Norman Stone's letter in the Economist

June 17th, 2008. Ambassador Gabrielyan's piece in the "Letters" section of the Economist refutes Norman Stone's (currently teaching at Bilkent University, Ankara) allegations about the 1915 Genocide  of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. The Ambassdor writes that today most discussions about the international recognition of the Genocide do not really question it, but rather look at the political expediency of the recognition. 

To read the letter, please click here.

Ambassador Gabrielyan responds to the Guardian publication on Nagorno Karabakh

June 16, 2008. An article by H.E. Vahe Gabrielyan was published in The Guardian in response to the 7 June 2008 publication on Nagorno Karabakh by Alexandros Petersen " Negotiating a Black Hole".
Please click here for the text of the article.

Workshop in Armenian Studies Held in Cambridge

June 7-8, Cambridge. Scholars in Armenian studies convened in King's College, Cambridge University for a two-day workshop organized by Dr. Bert Vaux, University Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics. Robert Thomson, Galouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies (emeritus), Timothy Greenwood, Lecturer in History, University of St, Andrews, Christina Maranci, Arthur H. Dadian and Ara Oztemel Professor of Armenian Art, Tufts University, Kristine Rose, Book Conservator, Chester Beatty Library, Elizabeth Redgate, Lecturer in the School of Historical Studies, Newcastle University, James Clakson, Senior University Lecturer in Classics, Jesus College, Cambridge and Theo Van Lint, Galouste Gulbenkian Professor of Armenian Studies, Oxford University contributed to an interesting discussion of a variety of subjects in linguisting, art and related crafts such as book-binding and others.

  L-R. J. Clakson(seated), R. Thomson, T. van Lint,K. Rose, B. Vaux and H. Gabrielyan

Dr. Vaux is the author, among many other titles, of the acclaimed book "The Phonolgy of Armenian" and a textbook on Eastern Armenian.

The Ambassador and Mrs. Gabrielyan attended the first day of the discussions.