Ministry of Diaspora and Handyuc team sign memorandum on creation of
pan-Armenian portal

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 12, NOYAN TAPAN – ARMENIANS TODAY. The RA Ministry
of Diaspora and Hanguyc team on September 8 signed a memorandum, under
which the sides will contribute to the creation of a pan-Armenian
portal of national significance. Being aimed at preserving the Armenian
identity, the portal will become an important tool for regulating
Armenian information flows, Information and PR Department of the RA
Ministry of Diaspora reported.

The Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobian attached importance to the
use of high technologies for unifying the Armenians scattered around
world, and to the full use of the nation’s potential for the purpose of
strengthening the Homeland. In this respect she pointed out the
necessity of certain programs, in particular those related to the use
of Armenian in the Internet, making translations from other languages,
as well as translations from Western Armenian into Eastern Armenian and
vice versa. She said that the Armenian people can be informed about any
project, news, problem through the Internet and expressed her
satisfaction with the availability of Internet tools which enable to
regulate information flows from Armenia to the Diaspora and in the
opposite direction. "I am convinced that we will have an Armenian
Google, but as the minister of Diaspora I dream of having an Armenian
CNN," she noted, adding that the establishment of an Armenian search
system will contribute to the creation of all-Armenian television. "It
is time for our powerful high-tech organizations to unite and solve
numerous problems related to preservation of the Armenian identity,"
she underlined, noting that 3rd forum ArmTech 2009 will be held in San
Francisco on November 6-10, an event of great signifiance for the
organization of experts’ repatriation.

The purpose of the memorandum is to unify the Armenians around
Armenia’s independent statehood by encouraging Homeland-Diaspora
cooperation.

The Ministry of Diaspora and Hanguyc team () will also
help with the establishment of an Armenian Internet search system that
will later assume the role of a national local regulator by uniting all
Armenian websites into a single system and reducing the gradually
increasing outflow of money in this sphere.

The sides will also carry out work on the creation and active
development of an Armenian Internet with Armenian contents, thanks to
which Armenians living in Homeland and Diaspora will have the
opportunity to be in constant contact via various means of
communication and overcome the existing time, linguistic, distance and
other barriers. This network may form a basis for a virtual "Armenian
world" which will include a number of professional networks allowing to
consolidate the intellectual, cultural and scientific potential of
Armenians living in various countries and use the joint activities of
the professional network’s members for the welfare of the nation.

The memorandum was signed by Head of the Ministry’s Information and PR
Department Tigran Harutyunian on behalf of the Ministry and by the team
head Mher Abrahamian on behalf of Hanguyc.