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Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Completes Verin Horatagh School

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  • Hayastan All-Armenian Fund Completes Verin Horatagh School

    PRESS RELEASE
    The Armenia Fund
    Governmental Buiding 3, Yerevan, RA
    Contact: Hasmik Grigoryan
    Tel: +(3741) 56 01 06 ext. 105
    Fax: +(3741) 52 15 05
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Web: http://www.himnadram.org/

    04 June, 2008

    HAYASTAN ALL-ARMENIAN FUND COMPLETES VERIN HORATAGH SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION:
    SCHOOL NAMED AFTER BARONESS CAROLINE COX

    Yerevan, June 04, 2008 - Hayastan All-Armenian Fund is proud to announce
    that a new school has opened in the Verin Horatagh village of Karabakh on
    May 30. The project has been sponsored by the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan
    All-Armenian Fund.

    The new school will bear the name of a great humanitarian, the Deputy
    Speaker of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom Baroness Caroline Cox.
    Dubbed as the "Guardian Angel of Arstakh", Baroness Cox has been an adamant
    supporter of Nagorno Karabakh both in the United Kingdom and
    internationally, calling for the full and proper recognition of Nagorno
    Karabakh, as well support for its redevelopment. Baroness Cox has visited
    Nagorno Karabakh more than 60 times and has led numerous humanitarian
    missions to the fledgling republic. In 2006 she was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh
    Medal by the President of the Republic of Armenia.

    Baroness Caroline Cox, who arrived in Karabakh together with her son,
    daughter-in-law and grandchildren, was the guest of honor at the event.

    Among the official guests attending the ceremony were the Prime Minister of
    Nagorno Karabakh Araik Harutyunyan, Minister of Education and Science
    Vladimir Khachatryan, Minister of Civil Construction Aleksandr Mamunts, Head
    of the Martakert Administration Sergei Ohanyan, as well as the Hayastan
    All-Armenian Fund Executive Director Vahe Aghabegians, Deputy Director Ara
    Vardanyan, Chairman of the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
    Migirdic Migirdician, other representatives of the affiliate, representative
    of the Fund in Karabakh Michel Tancrez, other officials and guests from
    Armenia, Canada, France, Nagorno Karabakh, and the U.S.

    Verin Horatagh, now a community of 530, was devastated in the Artsakh war.
    "Most of the families had to abandon the village to escape the horrors of
    war. When it was over, Verin Horatagh resembled a ghost town," recalls Naira
    Arustamyan, principal of the school. "We are grateful to the Hayastan
    All-Armenian Fund, Baroness Cox and our Armenian friends in Canada for this
    wonderful modern school. I am convinced that the new school will bring a new
    sense of hope for a better future to the residents of our village," she
    added.

    Baroness Cox visited Verin Horatagh village for the first time in 1992 while
    carrying out one of her numerous humanitarian missions in Karabakh. Two
    years ago she shared her memories in an emotional keynote address at the
    annual fundraising banquet organized by the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan
    Fund. By the end of the highly successful event funds were fully raised for
    the construction of the new modern school.

    "Baroness Caroline Cox' involvement and support counted so much in this
    project that it is altogether fitting and proper to have the school named
    after her. We hope that the school will make a profound difference in the
    lives of children and people in the region", said Migirdician.

    "It is a privilege and a great honor for me to be in this precious part of
    the world today. Your people are wonderful; you kept the spiritual and
    cultural values alive in the dark days of war. This new school will help
    give the young people the future they deserve", said Baroness Cox.

    The funding of the school was made possible thanks to a number of
    individuals among them Massis Kesisyan, who initiated a bicycle ride from
    Toronto to Montreal, and prominent pianist Serouj Gajian, who donated the
    proceeds from a concert to the construction of the school. Two classrooms in
    the school are now named after them. A tiny replica of an Armenian Church on
    the roof of the school is a gift to the community by the Verin Horatagh
    village tinsmith Varpet Seiran who has been involved in the construction of
    the school.

    "We are grateful to the Toronto affiliate of Hayastan All-Armenian Fund and
    Baroness Caroline Cox for the beautiful gift to the people of Artsakh. This
    school will open a brighter chapter in the lives of residents of Verin
    Horatagh", said Aghabegians, Executive Director of Hayastan All-Armenian
    Fund.

    ###
    Hayastan All-Armenian Fund
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