From March 15 to 18, the German city of Leipzig hosted the 2018 Leipzig Book Fair, and Armenia also participated for the first time through the organizational efforts of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Armenia and with the support of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in the Federal Republic of Germany.

The Armenian pavilion featured the works of Armenian classic and contemporary writers and painters, as well as the books devoted to Armenian history by Armenian and foreign authors and translated into Armenian and foreign languages.

During the book fair, Ambassador of Armenia to Germany Ashot Smbatyan held private talks with director of the Leipzig Book Fair Oliver Zille and the heads of various large publishing houses. During the meetings, the Ambassador attached importance to the opening of a Goethe Center in Yerevan to make the German language more widespread in Armenia and help readers have more access to Armenian books in German. Stating, with satisfaction, the willingness to further expand Armenia’s participation in the book fair, the sides reached a number of agreements on deepening the effective cooperation in that direction.

Reference: The Leipzig Book Fair is held every year in March and is the second largest book fair in Germany after the Frankfurt Book Fair. Today, the tradition established in the 17^th century provides more than 200,000 visitors with the opportunity to become familiar with various books published by nearly 2,500 publishing houses of Germany and several other countries and participate in discussions with the authors and the heads of publishing houses. More than 3,000 local and foreign journalists and bloggers provide coverage of the Leipzig Book Fair.