High Commissioner for Diaspora Affairs Zareh Sinanyan met with a group of Syrian-Armenians at the Aleppo NGO office, noting that he was ready to collaborate, listen, and make their voices heard more frequently.
After the meeting, the Commissioner spoke about the need to learn from the repatriation experience of Syrian-Armenians and Iraqi-Armenians and difficulties surrounding integration.
Currently, there are 10 to 12 thousand Syrian-Armenians living in Armenia. Issues surrounding housing, education, health and labor protection are particularly important to the community.
Despite this, according to a study by Aleppo NGO 76% of Syrian-Armenians surveyed want to stay in Armenia, and 90% want to own property in their homeland.
Syrian-Armenians stressed the importance of reestablishing the interdepartmental commission addressing their problems, to which Zareh Sinanyan responded that work was being done to that end. The Commissioner emphasized that preserving Western Armenian is also a principle concern.
At the end of the meeting, 46 Syrian-Armenian and Iraqi-Armenian students were awarded scholarships within the framework of the “Bright Future of Syrian-Armenian Youth” program. The project is implemented by Aleppo NGO with funding from the World Council of Churches Round Table Foundation.
