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(Armenpress) – For the 2016-2017 academic year, 70% of tuition fees for 436 Syrian-Armenian students were paid for by the Armenian government, AGBU, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and the Fund for Armenian Relief,
Armenian Diaspora Minister Hranush Hakobyan noted at a year-end press conference.
“There are three main directions of work with the Diaspora. We continue working in the direction of preservation of Armenian identity. That is, we do everything for the Diaspora to remain more Armenian, we work on issues of language and culture of education. The next one is discovering potential, using it for the economy. And naturally, we are designing programs to make Armenia more recognizable especially for the youth, that is to help in recognizing their Fatherland, and perhaps in the future they might decided to relocate here,” Hakobyan added.
According to the Minister of Diaspora, Syrian refugees in Armenia are socially, culturally, and educationally integrated, unlike many other countries where Syrian refugees live.
“Regarding employment and accommodation issues, you won’t find a single Syrian-Armenian without a home. This is a key issue, which we are attempting to solve with the assistance of the Diaspora and Pan-Armenian structures. Works carried out with Syrian-Armenians are legal, political, economic, educational, social, cultural, etc.,” she stated.
About 18,000 Syrian-Armenians were granted Armenian citizenship and 1,800 received resident status, Hakobyan said.
“The bombardments of Aleppo in late September of 2016 were foreseeable, but not to such extent. Naturally, the alertness of our work towards Syria and Syrian-Armenians was even more heightened. I would like to especially mention the work of Armenian Church structures, which although is not being noticed so much, since the large part of works is carried out in Syria,” she continued.
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