On July 15, RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan received President of the National Congress of Western Armenians and international law expert Suren Serayrdarian and his sister, Ani Serayrdarian, who has moved to Armenia from Syria.

During the meeting, the sides touched upon the results of the events held as part of the events dedicated to the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide, the opportunities to maintain those results and achieve more, as well as the potential actions to take in the legal field.

Seraryrdarian asked about the preservation of the Armenian language and particularly the preservation of Western Armenian. In response to his questions of concern, Minister Hranush Hakobyan mentioned that the issues related to the preservation of the Armenian language are always in the focus of the Ministry of Diaspora and that the ministry pays special attention to the instruction of Western Armenian.

The minister said the RA Ministry of Diaspora reflects on the issues on combining the terminologies of Eastern Armenian and Western Armenian, publishes professional books, organizes accelerated Armenian language courses, helps broadcast Armenian language courses on television and has launched the Western Armenian-Eastern Armenian and vice versa converter (www.translator.am). These are the issues that will be discussed during the conference on “Issues on Rapprochement of Western Armenian and Eastern Armenian” organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora and the Atcharyan Institute of Language of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia and to be held in Yerevan on 30-31 July.

The sides also reflected on the Syrian-Armenians in Armenia. Mr. Serayrdaryan informed the minister that his sister, Ani has purchased a home in Yerevan and has finally settled in Armenia.

The minister said she was pleased to hear the news and stressed that the best solution to the issue in this situation is to settle in the Homeland.

The sides also discussed other issues of mutual interest.