On April 27 the traditional Flower Gathering event took place in the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex
on the initiative of the Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets. Since 2010 the
Flower Gathering has been supported by the FPWC’s General Partner VivaCell-MTS.
The initiative combines the idea of giving these flowers a new lease of life and the environmental mission
that promotes recycling. The flowers laid at the Genocide Memorial on April 24 are gathered and their
stems are removed from the petals. The petals are used to derive compost, and the stems – to make
handmade recycled paper. The compost is used for the treatment of the soil in the Genocide Memorial
Park, while the handmade recycled paper is used to make certificates or postcards. This year Yerevan
Botanical Garden and ORWACO CJSC Armenian-Norwegian joint venture will help get bio humus from
the stems.
“During the last few years this initiative has become the natural continuation of April 24. The idea of the
Flower Gathering has been so consonant with people’s expectations, that it became everyone’s, getting an especially wide response among youth. Flower Gathering is now an integral of the impel that drove tens of thousands to the memorial every year,” FPWC Founder Ruben Khachatryan noted.
The event was attended by hundreds of representatives of non-governmental and international
organizations, private and public sector representatives, schoolchildren and students, ambassadors and
officials.