CENTENARY AGBU PARTICIPATES IN ARMENIA’S RECONSTRUCTION
By Nana Petrosian

AZG Armenian Daily
15/12/2006

These days the Armenian General Benevolent Union has celebrated the
100th anniversary of its activity in France. In this connection leaders
and representatives of AGBU’s central department and other regional
offshoots arrived in Paris from the USA and other countries. The
ceremony was opened by Armenian Patriarch’s blessing and was honored
by RA Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian. At the celebration which took
place in the castle of Versailles the minister stated: "The Diaspora
is the means to enlarge our national life’s boundaries, to multiply
our cultural richness and to hand down each other their knowledge.

It is a steady support for economic and national investments by which
it can participate in awakening of our country and nation. After the
proclamation of Armenian Independence, the AGBU became one of the
institutions, which assessed the situation and actively was included
in Armenian reconstruction.

Foreign Ministry reported that Vartan Oskanian emphasized in his speech
that to preserve the Armenian core of Diaspora’s new generation, we
have no choice but to offer them a democratic and prosperous Armenia.