With the purpose of celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia with pan-Armenian resonance, in April 2018, the Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia is planning on holding a conference devoted to the First Republic of Armenia that will gather scholars and state and public figures from the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh and other countries around the world. For that purpose, the Catholicosate has set up a committee chaired by His Holiness Aram I, Supreme Patriarch and composed of the following members: renowned Diaspora Armenian intellectual, historian Yervand Pamboukian; Director of the Institute of History at the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Ashot Melkonyan; Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Aztag Armenian Daily Shahan Kandaharian; Representative of the Office for the Armenian Cause and Political Affairs of the ARF-D Bureau Kiro Manoyan; representative of ARF-D South America, Professor of International Relations and Politics at the San Andres University of Buenos Aires Khatchik Derghougassian and Head of the Divan of Antelias Khatchig Dedeian.

“The Committee will hold its first session in November. During the session to be chaired by His Holiness Aram I, the participants will specify the general directions, topics and speakers,” Editor-in-Chief of Lebanon’s Aztag Armenian Daily, Committee member Shahan Kandaharian said in an interview with Hayern Aysor and added that it is very important for the conference to engage all Armenians around the world because figures of the First Republic of Armenia (Nigol Aghbalian, Levon Shant, Simon Vratsian and Karo Sasouni) settled in Lebanon after the end of Independence and continued their community service there.

During the interview, Shahan Kandaharian also stressed the fact that the conference in Antelias will become a part of the general atmosphere for celebrating the 100^thanniversary of the First Republic of Armenia in a pan-Armenian format also because Lebanon, and in this case Antelias, are of pan-Diasporan significance.

“The symbol of May 28^th and the ideology of shaping an independent republic served as the axis for the formation of generations and educational and disciplinary activities.

The conference will feature the presentation of historic and political materials, current issues, speeches devoted to the restoration and strengthening of statehood, as well as the overall picture of the longstanding efforts for development of the process of formation of a political mindset in the Diaspora based on the ideology that was shaped in May,” Shahan Kandaharian concluded.