On June 10, the RA Ministry of Diaspora held a teleconference with representatives of the national, religious, cultural and youth organizations of the Armenian community of Lebanon. RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan participated in the teleconference.

Among the participants from Beirut were Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to the Republic of Lebanon Samvel Mkrtchyan, Consul of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia Ashot Vardanyan, Advisor to the RA Minister of Diaspora Maro Nersisian, employees of the embassy, as well as representatives of the national, religious, cultural and youth organizations of the Armenian community of Lebanon.

Greeting the participants, Minister Hranush Hakobyan expressed gratitude to the members of the community for their high level of organization and for actively participating in pan-Armenian programs and pro-national events.

Hranush Hakobyan touched upon the adoption by the German Bundestag of the resolution on recognition of the Armenian Genocide and stated the following: “By acknowledging its complicity, Germany set an example for Turkey. This recognition also became a precedent for recognition of the genocides of other nations. It will still take a long time to fully analyze the adopted document, and I believe it would be right to organize a discussion on this topic in Lebanon as well.”

The Minister talked about the inadequate response of the Turkish authorities to the Bundestag’s decision. “Unfortunately, Turkey continues to exert pressure on national minorities,” the Minister mentioned. Touching upon the four-day war that took place in Artsakh, the Minister emphasized that Baku’s plans to seize Artsakh failed because the Armenian army was able to combine efforts quickly and give a strong counterattack. “We saw Turkey’s overt support to this new aggression unleashed by Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, our victory was scored as a result of the deaths of nearly 100 Armenians, and the death of each of them is a severe pain for us,” she said.

Minister Hranush Hakobyan expressed special gratitude to all the Armenian communities of the Diaspora for supporting Artsakh. “The Armenian community of Lebanon also provided great assistance to Artsakh. Artsakh felt the support of the powerful Diaspora,” she stated.

The Minister also talked about the problems facing Syrian-Armenians in Armenia and emphasized that the Syrian-Armenians introduced a new working culture in Armenia. “All the problems with social, cultural and educational integration have been solved. We only have certain difficulties with economic integration,” the Minister said.

Expressing gratitude for the opportunity for direct contact via long distance, Ambassador Samvel Mkrtchyan highly appreciated the working style of the Ministry of Diaspora to strengthen bonds with communities and solving the existing problems in such a format. “We will definitely consider all the comments and suggestions, especially for more active participation in the programs of the Ministry of Diaspora,” he mentioned.

Afterwards, the participants of the teleconference discussed the problems of the community, as well as the participation of the Armenian community of Lebanon in the “Ari Tun” Program, the “Diaspora” Summer School Program, the “My Armenia” Pan-Armenian Festival and the other programs of the RA Ministry of Diaspora.