YEREVAN — The program of “Free Eastern Armenian and Russian Language Courses for Syrian Armenians” was officially launched in Yerevan’s Stepan Shahumyan school today. Attending the ceremony were representative of the Yerevan office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Armenia, Christoph Bierwirth, head of the “Rossotrudnichestvo” representation Mark Kalinin, teachers of Eastern Armenian and Russian, members of the “Center Coordinating the Issues of Syrian Armenians” NGO, and others.
Greeting the guests, Minister Hranush Hakobyan mentioned that even though Syrian-Armenians have integrated into Armenian society through different programs, it is important for them to have knowledge of the Armenian language, particularly Eastern Armenian. The minister added that by living and working in Armenia, it is necessary to have knowledge of the Russian language since it is important for contacts and communication with Armenians from the CIS countries.
The Armenian Ministry of Diaspora in cooperation with the UNHCR Office has already enrolled 53 and 60 Syrian Armenians for Eastern Armenian and Russian language courses respectively. In the future English language courses for 200 Syrian Armenian will be offered.
