On June 20, Prime Minister of the Artsakh Republic Arayik Harutyunyan visited the Shahumyan region and greeted more than 200 Armenian families having traveled from Russia, the Ukraine and the Republic of Armenia via the Vardenis-Martakert highway to spend their summer vacation in Artsakh. This is the initiative of leader of the “Artsakh” Compatriotic Union Varuzhan Grigoryan, who is the leader of the delegation of repatriate families, reports News.am.

Greeting the gathered, Prime Minister Harutyunyan expressed special gratitude to the “Artsakh” Compatriotic Union, namely President Varuzhan Grigoryan for carrying out this initiative and mentioned that it was of great significance for Artsakh and the people born in Artsakh.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the initiative was also economical, but that the most important thing was to connect the people of Artsakh to their historic homeland. “We thank our compatriots for responding to the call to spend their vacation in Artsakh and we’re certain that this will be ongoing,” Harutyunyan said.

The Prime Minister expressed confidence that among the people having arrived in Artsakh will be people who will want to return to the homeland after having left Artsakh many years ago. “I’m certain that the life that you live abroad is not better than the life that you can live in the homeland. I’m certain that we’ll see families returning and settling in Artsakh over time,” the Prime Minister concluded.

In his turn, President of the “Artsakh” Compatriotic Union Varuzhan Grigoryan greeted the participants of the initiative and expressed gratitude to Prime Minister Harutyunyan for the cordial reception. “I’m very happy and excited that this many people responded to our first call. This is truly a patriotic act, and I think every Armenian must spend his or her vacation in the homeland for at least a week,” Grigoryan said.

Grigoryan also promised that the initiative would be ongoing.