Baltic News Service
November 16, 2004

ESTONIAN TARTU’S FORMER TWIN CITY IN ARMENIA WANTS TO REKNIT TIES

TALLINN, Nov 16

Estonia’s second-largest city Tartu’s former twin city in Armenia,
Gumri (earlier Leninakan), is keen to restore the broken ties.

The Armenian city is very interested in picking up the threads of the
good relationship with Tartu, Mayor of Tartu Laine Janes said after
meeting with the mayor of Gumri, Vardan Ghukasyan.

“We can offer them support and consultations in the framework of the
soon-to-be-launched European Union neighbor integration program,”
Janes told BNS through a spokesperson for the city government.

Both mayors found the two cities’ cooperation in the fields of
culture and education needs to be strengthened.

The mayor of Gumri will probably visit Tartu next May in the
framework of the Armenian regional affairs minister’s visit to this
Baltic state.

Gumri is the second-largest city in Armenia after the capital Yerevan
with a population of about 150,000.

The city was in 1989 hit by a strong earthquake that destroyed
practically all of it, claiming around 25,000 lives.