Cultural centres of national minorities

Numerous non-governmental organisations and cultural centres of national minorities operate in Armenia, the purpose of which is to develop national consciousness, as well as to preserve and develop the native language, literature, history and culture (in particular, “Rossotrudnichestvo”, “Harmony” National Centre for Russian Culture, “Oda” Armenian-Russian Cultural Union, “Arbela” Armenian-Russian-Assyrian Scientific and Cultural Centre, “National Union of Yezidis” NGO, “Iveria” Georgian Charitable Community NGO, “Sinjar” National Union of Yezidis NGO, “Ilios” Greek Community of Yerevan NGO, “Menora” Jewish Cultural Centre NGO and “Inter-Ethnic and Inter-Cultural Collaborations Centre” NGO). Days of culture of specific nationalities periodically held in Armenia also contribute to the representation of the culture of national minorities. In particular, Days of Culture of Russia, Belarus and Israel were held in Armenia in 2012-2015, and Russian, Belarusian and Jewish communities living in Armenia actively engaged therein. During the reporting period, literary translation projects were also implemented (for instance, “Silver Thread” poem by Aleksandr Poryadochny was published with state funding), book presentations were held with the participation of the authors (in particular, the presentation of the book “Grand” by Janusz Wisniewski in 2014), exhibition programmes (in particular, exhibition of the works of renowned Polish artist Teodor Axentowicz at the National Gallery of Armenia), concert programmes, film projects were implemented (including the implementation in 2015 of the translation into Armenian of the documentary film “In the Footsteps of the Argonauts”, which tells about the Greek Genocide), and film weeks (Russian, Belarusian) were held. National minorities of Armenia take part in republican shows and contests. They actively participated in the storytelling and dialect festival “Three apples fell from heaven” in 2013.