The RA Ministry of Diaspora held a teleconference with representatives of the Armenian community of Belarus on Apr. 3.

Greeting the participants of the teleconference, RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora Serzh Srapionyan presented the pan-Armenian programs that the RA Ministry of Diaspora is carrying out this year and urged the representatives of the community to show more active participation in those programs.

Expressing gratitude to the attending Deputy Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus for Religions and Ethnicities Vladimir Lameko for the government’s generosity toward the Armenian community, the RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora mentioned that there are nearly 30,000 Armenians living in the Republic of Belarus and that only through religious, national and cultural freedoms granted to the ethnic minorities by the government is it possible to preserve the spirit of the Armenian community.

In his turn, Mr. Lameko expressed gratitude to the RA Ministry of Diaspora and the representatives of the Armenian community of Belarus for accepting the invitation to take part in the teleconference, mentioned that the guarantee for the existence of any nation is preservation of the language and added that the Belarusians deeply respect the Armenians and the Armenian community. Lameko assured that the Armenians of Belarus are law-abiding citizens and actively participate in the country’s social, cultural and economic life, as well as in other spheres.

President of the “Hayastan” Armenian Cultural-Enlightening Society of Minsk Georgi Yeghiazaryan presented the key issues concerning the Belarusian-Armenian community and talked about the community’s participation in the programs that the RA Ministry of Diaspora is carrying out this year.

Yeghiazaryan mentioned that the community actively responds to all the large-scale programs organized by the ministry, and the youth and experts who have participated in the “Ari Tun” and “Diaspora Summer School” Programs suggest and encourage their friends and close ones to participate in those programs.

Director of Minsk’s Erebuni Dance Ensemble Ruzanna Avanesyan added that information about the launch and process of the programs of the RA Ministry of Diaspora is posted on all Armenian websites in Belarus and assured that several youth who have participated in the “My Armenia”, “Ari Tun” and “Diaspora Summer School” Programs want to come and settle in Armenia.

During the teleconference, the representatives of the Belarusian-Armenian community agreed to participate in the “Diaspora Summer School” Program and the Pan-Armenian Forum of Journalists to be held in September, as well as to provide more necessary materials and reports devoted to the Armenian community for the 2014 “Armenian Diaspora Yearbook”.

RA Deputy Minister of Diaspora Serzh Srapionyan mentioned that the ministry would continue to send textbooks, fiction books and Armenian fairy tales to the community. Srapionyan also urged the representatives of the community to maintain and enhance their relations with Armenia and with the Armenian communities of other countries, which the staff at the ministry’s “Hayern Aysor” online newspaper is aimed at and will provide assistance with its daily releases.