On May 29, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan moderated the session of the inter-agency commission in charge of organizing the “Ari Tun” Program and the “Diaspora” Summer School Program. Among the participants of the session were RA First Deputy Minister of Defense David Tonoyan, RA Deputy Minister of Territorial Administration and Emergency Situations Artashes Bakhshyan, RA Deputy Minister of Education and Science Manuk Mkrtchyan, RA Deputy Minister of Health Gagik Mirijanyan, as representatives of other government agencies, as well as representatives of municipalities and regional councils.

Greeting the gathered, the RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan attached importance to the creation of the inter-agency commission, the major purpose of which is to coordinate and properly carry out the “Ari Tun” Program and the “Diaspora” Summer School Program of the RA Ministry of Diaspora. The minister mentioned that the programs would host 2,000-2,500 Diaspora Armenian youth and that the RA Ministry of Diaspora was working with all public administration bodies to solve the problems with airfare, security, healthcare and other problems. Hranush Hakobyan expressed gratitude to all the government agencies, municipalities and regional councils for their active and organized participation in the programs carried out last year.

Head of the task force for the “Ari Tun” Program Firdus Zakaryan presented the past and upcoming activities according to the plan for this year and particularly mentioned that the “Ari Tun” Program would help bring 1,100 Diaspora Armenian youth to Armenia this year. The booklet-itinerary for the 2015 “Ari Tun” Program has been developed and approved and has been translated into Russian and English. This year, the “Ari Tun” Program will be held in eight stages. It will be launched on 14 June and will end on 29 August. Based on information received on 21 May, the organizers have received applications from 160 young Diaspora Armenians from 20 countries. This year, there will be 40 participants from Dersim and another 40 from Diyarbakir. Another 200-220 young people from different countries (Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, France, Cyprus, USA and Canada) will be participating in the “Ari Tun” Program on the sidelines of the youth reunion to be held by the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party. Fifty Syrian-Armenian children have also expressed the desire to participate in the program.

Zakaryan also presented the “Diaspora” Summer School Program with its six courses and the preparations.

He informed that the preparations for the 2015 “Diaspora” Summer School Program were also according to plan.

Talking about the effectiveness of the summer school program, Deputy Head of the Institute for Social and Armenian Studies at Yerevan State University Mher Hovhannisyan proposed to make the courses ongoing by introducing the distance learning system.

The minister summed up the session and gave assignments to make the work more coordinated and more substantial. “I want to believe that by combining our efforts and implementing the programs, we will fully complete the assignments given by the President and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia,” she said.