On February 19, the Hovhannes Isakov School N 132 of Yerevan hosted an event dedicated to the Mother Language and organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora and Yerevan Municipality. Among the participants were RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora Serzh Srapionyan, Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Aram Sukiasyan, Head of the Department of Education of Yerevan Municipality Gaiane Soghomonyan, Head of the Department of All-Armenian Programs of the RA Ministry of Diaspora Gagik Gyanjumyan, as well as intellectuals, teachers and other guests.

The event included literary and musical compositions and short plays devoted to the Mother Language, including a play about the “Ari Tun” Program. In Western Armenian, the student actors showed how an Armenian family living abroad gets excited after hearing about the “Ari Tun” Program. The grandmother of the family decides to visit the Homeland with her grandson so that the latter participates in the program and is familiarized with the sites worth seeing in Armenia and the daily lives of the people in Armenia.

The works and letters of Avetik Isahakyan, Vahan Teryan, Paruyr Sevak and Hovhannes Shiraz devoted to the Armenian language were read during the event.

RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora Serzh Srapionyan transmitted the welcome speech of RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan to the participants of the event. “The homage that was paid to the mother language on this stage truly instilled hope that the preservation of the Armenian language is in good hands. It is our duty to preserve our language on television, on the Internet and in our daily lives. The preservation of our language is of strategic importance, and so, the RA Ministry of Diaspora, under the leadership of Minister Hranush Hakobyan, always follows the achievements that the protectors of the Armenian language (our teachers, TV commentators and Armenian mothers communicating with their children in Armenian that is as pure as possible), and today we will present them with awards.”

The winners of the contest for the mothers of schoolchildren of general education schools, including Armine Asatryan (Metsarents School N 146), Lusine Muradyan (Knights of Vartan School N 106), Kristine Mnatsakanyan (Siamanto School N 162), Anna Hovhannisyan (School N 75), as well as reciter Gaiane Samvelyan and sports commentator for the Second Armenian TV Channel Harutyun Minasyan were granted the certificates of the RA Ministry of Diaspora for their notable contributions to the preservation, development and dissemination of the mother language, as well as on the occasion of International Mother Language Day.

Encouraging awards of the RA Ministry of Diaspora (books published by the order and under the sponsorship of the RA Ministry of Diaspora) were granted to schoolchildren who have good command of Armenian and use Armenian as purely as possible.

In his speech, Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Aram Sukiasyan mentioned that the new generation of Armenians is a generation that loves to read and that the employees of Armenia’s libraries and bookstores can prove this.

At the end, with special excitement, the schoolchildren on stage and in the audience promised and loudly swore to preserve the purity of the Armenian language created by the genius Mesrop Mashtots and passed on throughout the centuries.