Yerevan – Los Angeles: Sister Cities

National Assembly of RA (press release), Armenia
Aug 20 2005

On August 19 the members of the Armenian-American friendship group
of the National Assembly met Eric Garcetti, member of Los Angeles
city council.

He arrived in Armenia on the initiative of declaring Yerevan and Los
Angeles sister cities. It is envisaged to sign an agreement in the USA
about it after holding relevant discussions in Yerevan. The Armenian
parliamentarians refer to this proposal with satisfaction taking into
account the existence of the big Armenian community: it’s the third
largest after those in Armenia and Russia. Levon Lazarian, Head of
the friendship group, noted that this is a good occasion to deepen
the relations between the two communities and strengthen cultural
and scientific ties. In case of the implementation of the program
and in future opening of an economic representation of California in
Armenia those present expect big progress. Besides, the cooperation
will be moved into more practical plane. During the meeting with
Hranush Hakobyan, Chairwoman of NA Standing Committee on Science,
Education, Culture and Youth Eric Garcetti discussed the issue of
possible cooperation in the sphere film industry.

In the state of California three models of elections of the community
head is applied. In case of having the electoral system of Mayor
of Yerevan (it’s envisaged within the framework of constitutional
reforms), it will useful to apply the experience of California:
a preliminary agreement was reached about this.

Levon Lazarian informed that the tradition of friendship groups is
planned also to spread on state parliaments.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress