July 14^th marked the final session of the first “Armenia. Create Together” youth forum held under the auspices of IDeA Foundation in Dilijan.

The participants of the forum toured United World College Dilijan where the directors of the programs at UWC Dilijan introduced the past activities and upcoming programs of the IDeA Foundation.

Afterwards, the participants of the first “Armenia. Create Together” youth forum (organized by the RA Ministry of Diaspora, in association with the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Luys Foundation and Ayb Foundation) recapped the work that had been done in three directions, including “Advocacy and Media”, “Medicine and Health” and “Engineering and Technology”.

The final session was moderated by founder of LegalLab Law Boutique Stepan Khzrtian.

Khzrtian stated that the President of the Republic of Armenia was the first to make an announcement about the youth forum during his meeting with representatives of the Armenian community of the U.S. East Coast in Massachusetts on March 30, 2016. In his speech, he had particularly said the following:

“The 25th anniversary celebrations of Independence will concentrate on youth and, especially, on the generation of independence. To this end, the Ministry of Diaspora, jointly with Armenian General Benevolent Union, Luys and Ayb Foundation, initiated annual youth gathering under the motto “Let us create together destination Armenia” that will take place from June 11 to June 16. Its objective is to consolidate and provide with a joint collaboration ground to the creative new generation of our independence, scientists both from our homeland and Diaspora, graduate and post-graduate students of the leading world universities, and let them invest their knowledge and skills into the projects empowering Armenia.”

Stepan Khzrtian attached importance to the fact that the forum was more practical and stated the following: “This was a platform that united the youth and successful professionals of Armenia and the Diaspora to exchange ideas, identify the challenges and indicate the paths to solve those challenges. The forum helped create a new environment in which the youth had the chance to get to know each other, show nation-oriented approaches and take new steps.”

Afterwards, Stepan Khzrtian gave the floor to one of the participants of the youth forum, alumnus of the University of Oxord Sos Avetisyan, who recapped the activities of the “Advocacy and Media” Atelier and attached importance to the actions that the youth can take in order to solve the issues related to the Armenian Genocide and the self-determination of the people of Artsakh.

The activities of the “Medicine and Health” Atelier were summed up by the representative of the atelier, student of the University of Harvard Nora Leserson, who stated that the two telemedicine attempts made through long-distance connection with the Gargar village of Lori Province from Vardanants Medical Center were successful and voiced hope that telemedicine would grow and become widely popular through the efforts of young Armenian doctors.

Students of the University of Pennsylvania Armen Vardanyan and Andre Festekjian delivered their final reports on the activities that were carried out by the “Engineering and Technology” Atelier.

Summing up the session, Stepan Khzrtian cited the speech of the President of the Republic of Armenia and stated the following: “Armenia is a dream, and we make it happen true. Armenia is a home of ours and of our forthcoming generations, regardless of our current place of residence. Armenia is, indeed, the warmest and most native corner for every single Armenian, and it will remain as such forever.”

In his speech following the session, Director of IDeA Foundation Edgar Manukyan stated that such forums were important in that they introduce the young generation of Armenians to the history and culture of Armenia. According to him, the youth forum showed that Diaspora Armenian youth are concerned about issues of national concern and especially the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide. Edgar Manukyan also called on young Armenians to unite around the homeland.

The session was followed by a discussion during which the youth particularly made proposals to create a pan-Armenian youth network that would provide the opportunity to implement new pro-national ideas and programs.