A conference on “The Spiritual and Educational Life of the Armenians in Bulgaria” was recently held in Sofia, Bulgaria and was dedicated to 88^th anniversary of the appointment of the first Vicar of the Armenian Prelacy in Bulgaria, Archbishop Stepanos Hovakimyan and the 80^th death anniversary of Stepanos Hovakimyan.

The conference was organized by the Coordinating Council of Armenian Community Organizations in Sofia and the RussianCenter for Science and Information in Sofia.

The event brought together representatives of state, community and other bodies, as well as Armenian organizations based in different cities across the country. The sixteen speeches were devoted to the spiritual and educational life of the Armenians of Bulgaria.

In their speeches, President of the Stepanos Hovakimyan Armenian Society of Schools Onik Piliposyan, editor-in-chief of Sofia’s Yerevan newspaper Vardanush Topakbashyan, Catalina-Saltirova-Pavlova, Mihran Poghosyan, Eozheni Sakez and Gohar Khnkanosyan emphasized the spiritual and educational life of the Armenians of Bulgaria starting from the late 19^th century and ending with the mid-20^th century and based on archives and documents.

Most of the speakers, including Dr. Masis Khajolyan, Nerses Shirinyan, Siruhi Sheytanyan, Onik Gyulyan, Elizabeth Poghosyan, Simon Tutelyan and Sonya Arshavir gave a complete picture of the spiritual and educational life of the Armenian communities of several Bulgarian cities, including Varna, Pazarjik, Silistra, Dobrich, Burgas, Plovdiv and Yambol.

Arman Basmajyan’s speech was devoted to the development of the institution of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.

Among the official welcome speeches was a speech by Mayor of Sofia Yordanka Fandekova.

The guests of the conference were First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Bulgaria, Mrs. Anna Sahakyan, Father Gosan Hadavyan, assistant professor of the Academy of Sciences Nikola Kazansky, Professor Delcho Balabanov, architect Hakob Karakashyan, President of Plovdiv’s Yerevan Organization Elizabeth Vardanyan and Chairman of the Mekhitarist Association Zohrab Chalekian.

The partners were three newspapers of Bulgaria (Yerevan, Vahan and Voice of the AGBU), and Standart newspaper and Focus news agency provided coverage of the event.

The participants and most of the guests expressed their views on the topics during a debate.

In the end, the organizing committee expressed its satisfaction with the results. Everyone shared the view that the documents and archival materials presented at the conference could serve as a basis when revising and clarifying the era of the creation of the Armenian Diocese in Bulgaria. It is necessary in order to reflect and record the official date of establishment of the Diocese on the symbols and representative documents of the Diocesan Council of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church of Bulgaria, taking into consideration the existing archival documents.

The participants of the conference adopted a Declaration that will be submitted to the official authorities and relevant officials of Bulgaria and Armenia.

Onik Piliposyan, president of the Organizing Committee of the Conference

Sofia, Bulgaria