The government program highlights seven major fields for Armenia’s Ministry of Diaspora, Stepan Petrosyan, Advisor to Armenia’s Minister of Diaspora, told reporters on Wednesday.

Attraction of investments, Syrian Armenians’ integration and cooperation with all-Armenian funds throughout the world, retraining courses for teachers from the Armenian Diaspora, expanding relations with professional associations, aid to Armenians in Javakhk are the seven priorities for the Ministry of Diaspora.

Elaborating on the investment attraction program, Mr Petrosyan said that the ministry has done tremendous work, and the figures are evidence thereof. And current cooperation with the relevant government agency is aimed at attracting more investment as well.
Serjik Srapionyan, a deputy minister of diaspora also attending the news conference, said the Ministry has to date offered its best assistance to the Armenians of Syria, dealing with their housing- and employment-related problems.
“We greet planes from the East practically every day, no matter whether we have precise information about a Syrian-Armenian family’s arrival by a specific flight. What we can do is first of all providing shelter. We then go on to search for comfortable apartments, at time also covering the monthly fees. Their food, clothing and employment too, are our responsibility,” the official added.

Arthur Hovhannisyan

207204 Foreign minister Edward Nalbandian met Tuesday, March 1 with the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini in Yerevan.

At the meeting, the parties thoroughly discussed Armenia-EU ties and negotiations on forming a new legal basis for relations, also dwelling upon Armenia’s participation in projects on political dialogue, human rights, mobility, economic reforms among other things.

The Armenian foreign policy chief thanked EU for its continuous support to the country, having played a significant role for reforms implementation and institutional capacity building.

Analyzing the situation in the Middle East, Nalbandian stressed that Armenia has so far hosted around 20,000 Syrian refugees, adding that EU’s possible assistance in this context would be quite appreciated.

Minister Nalbandian also briefed Mogherini on the latest developments of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement in the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmanship. Mogherini, in turn, reaffirmed the EU’s support to the mediators’ efforts towards the peaceful settlement of the conflict.

At the end of the meeting, Nalbandian restated Armenia’s determination to go for an exclusively peaceful settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.

Aid to Syrian-Armenians key task for Diaspora Ministry

Armenia, EU talk Karabakh, Syrian refugee crisis