On October 17, the RA Ministry of Diaspora hosted a ceremony during which the Ministry summed up the results of the 2015 annual Pan-Armenian Awards “For notable contribution to the preservation of the Armenian identity” and granted awards to the winners.

The RA Ministry of Diaspora has been holding the awards with the World Armenian Congress and the Union of Armenians of Russia (UAR) since 2010.

Among the participants of the ceremony were RA Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan, Vice-Presidents of the UAR and the World Armenian Congress Vladimir Aghayan and Aram Sargsyan, Vice-President of the Union of Armenians of Russia Lusik Ghukasyan, presidents of the regional divisions of the UAR, as well as pedagogues and guests.

The Minister greeted the participants and all the award recipients and stated that this year there were new categories, including Best Traditional Armenian Family and Best Art Group.

“We received a lot of applications from Diaspora Armenians who wanted to apply for these categories. This means that the sons of Armenian families in foreign countries are being raised with the awareness of the Armenian identity,” the Minister stated, emphasizing that the year 2015 stood out with the performances of many Armenian choirs and dance ensembles, most of which best presented themselves during the “My Armenia” Pan-Armenian Festival and “We Sing Komitas” Pan-Armenian Festival.

Minister Hranush Hakobyan particularly praised the role and activities of Armenian teachers living in the Armenian community of Syria and teaching at Armenian schools in this difficult period of time. “They are risking their lives to teach Armenian children the Armenian language, history and culture at nearly 20 Armenian schools in Syria,” she stated.

The Minister awarded Syrian-Armenian teachers Anahid Tekmejian and Ema Azarigian with the “Ambassador of the Mother Language” Medal of the RA Ministry of Diaspora.

Vice-President of the UAR Aram Sargsyan transmitted the welcoming speech of President of the UAR Ara Abrahamyan. Expressing gratitude to the devoted pedagogues and organizers of education of all Armenian schools abroad, Sargsyan stated the following: “From now on, we will continue to support the organizing of this competition. The Ministry of Diaspora has become a familiar partner for us, and we are able to carry out all the joint programs with Minister Hranush Hakobyan.”

The following are the categories for the 2015 Awards:

“Defender of Mother Language”

Best Armenian Community

Best Traditional Armenian Family

Best Art Group

The organizers received 112 applications from Diaspora Armenian organizations, institutions and individuals from 23 countries around the world.

There were 61 individuals and organizations who received 1^st and 2^nd class awards (13 received 1^st class, 48 received 2^nd class, 51 received a 3^rd class encouraging award).

Minister Hranush Hakobyan and UAR Vice-Presidents Vladimir Aghayan and Aram Sargsyan called the 15 attending winners from Lebanon, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Georgia to the stage to hand them their awards, medals and diplomas.

Mariam Karapetyan (Bulgaria), Lusine Mzikyan (Georgia) and others expressed their gratitude to the Ministry and particularly Minister Hranush Hakobyan for organizing the awards ceremony and keeping the spirit of preservation of the Armenian identity alive in the Armenian communities through the competition. They stated that only through the strong Armenia-Artsakh-Diaspora triumvirate will it be possible to confront all the challenges facing Armenia and the Armenian people.

Editor-in-chief of Russia’s “Masyats Aghavni” Armenian magazine Vahan Vermishyan expressed his words of gratitude to the organizers of the event in a video message, stating that the “Defender of the Mother Language” Medal was the most precious of all his awards since it is an appreciation of his efforts aimed at preserving the Armenian identity.

The event ended with musical performances by dudukist, recipient of state and international awards, Gurgen Dabaghyan’s student Serob Sargsyan, as well as the “Singing Angels” Children’s Group of the School for Voice Maintenanceand singer Vladimir Aharonyan.