RUSSIAN, ARMENIAN FIRST LADIES OPEN RUSSIAN BOOK CENTER IN YEREVAN
RIA Novosti, Russia
March 25 2005
YEREVAN, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – The spouses of the Russian and
Armenian Presidents, Lyudmila Putin and Bella Kocharyan opened the
Russian Book Center in downtown Yerevan. It is located in a beautiful
mansion built in 1901.
For over 50 years this building has been the headquarters of the
Armenian Society for Cultural Links and Cooperation with Foreign
Countries (AOKS).
The Center contains a library, a video library and a reading hall.
The new establishment is expected to promote traditional friendly
Russian-Armenian relations in the humanitarian and spiritual spheres.
The Center will host presentations of new Russian editions, meetings
of writers, scholars and Russian language and literature experts,
anniversary celebrations of prominent Russian and Armenian culture
figures. It will also sell Russian books and periodicals.
According to the AOKS chairman, Armenian ambassador to Russia Armen
Sambatyan, the Center’s library has 3,000 Russian books, encyclopedias,
reference editions, dictionaries, fiction and children’s books. They
were purchased and sent to Yerevan by Oganes Oganyan, the chairman of
the Federation Council committee for economic policy, entrepreneurship
and property.