On July 3, the 2017 “Diaspora” Summer School Program of the RA Ministry of Diaspora kicked off with a solemn opening ceremony. The program is being carried out in cooperation with Yerevan State University and has gathered over 350 Diaspora Armenians from 30 countries around the world.

The “Diaspora” Summer School Program includes the following five courses:

Accelerated Armenian Language Course (2-29 July)

Training Course for Armenian Language Teachers and Organizers of Education (2-29 July)

Training Course for Young Leaders (2-15 July)

Master Classes for Armenian Choirmasters and Dance Instructors (2-15 July)

Course for Young Leaders and Community Figures (2-15 July)

RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan delivered her opening remarks and particularly stated the following: “I express my greetings to all the participants of the courses who have come to Armenia to learn Armenian and improve their knowledge and skills. With the call of the homeland, you have traveled from different counties to see the land of your ancestors, communicate in Armenian with young Armenians underneath the arches of the main university of Armenia and establish contacts with each other and with the homeland.”

Minister Hranush Hakobyan emphasized that the “Diaspora” Summer School Program was created upon the request of the Diaspora to support the programs devoted to national identity, preservation and development of linguistic thinking in Armenian and preservation of the Armenian identity within Armenian communities.

“When the Program was being created five years ago, there was a fear that it might not be a success. However, the number of participants grew year after year, and now there are more than 350 participants,” the Minister stated and added the following: “What is especially important is the participation of young Armenians since they are the ones who must know their people, the history of the homeland, the Armenian language well, as well as disseminate all the knowledge and share it with the young Armenians living in different communities of the Diaspora.”

The Minister called on the participants to study hard. “I am especially addressing the youth. The 21^st century is a century of science, innovations and information technologies. Young Armenians with the genes of an Armenian must be competitive in the world with their knowledge, become top professionals and know that their mind and knowledge are the major national capital for not only them, but also their Homeland and that they are the main potential of our nation,” the Minister emphasized.

Afterwards, Rector of Yerevan State University Aram Simonyan greeted the attendees, expressed gratitude to the RA Ministry of Diaspora for the close collaboration and stated the following: “The implementation of this program is of major significance. The entire staff at the University expresses its heartfelt greetings to you and treats the proper organizing of the courses with a high sense of responsibility. As the Minister of Diaspora said, there were many hardships when we launched this program five years ago, but we carried it out with faith, and today, over 350 participants will spend a month of their vacation to take training courses and gain knowledge in the Homeland.”

The speeches by the Minister and the Rector were followed by speeches by participants of the teacher training courses Vanoohi Khachikian (Iraq), Astghik Lazgyan (Russia) and Satenik Ter-Grigoryan (USA). “I would like to express my gratitude to the RA Ministry of Diaspora for organizing this program and providing us with the opportunity to participate. We are visiting Armenia for the first time and are glad that we have the chance to become familiar with our colleagues,” Vanoohi Khachikian stated.

“We speak and only interact in Armenian within our community in Russia. When people ask me why I speak only in Armenian, I tell them that Armenian is the language of my thoughts and feelings and the language that “came” with the milk that my mother fed me,” Astghik Lazgyan added.

During the event, members of the YSU Cultural Center recited poems, performed dances and musical numbers.