Armenian president attends opening of Wikimedia Armenia office

YEREVAN, June 19. / ARKA /. President Serzh Sargsyan today attended the opening of the office of Wikimedia Armenia scientific-educational NGO in Yerevan. The president toured the office, familiarized himself with the activities of Wikimedia Armenia and its upcoming development projects, Sargsyan's press office said.

The president was said that the goal of Wikimedia Armenia, the Armenian branch of the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), is to encourage the distribution and development of wiki-based projects in Armenia and in the region and to popularize the idea of free knowledge.

At the conference hall of the office, Serzh Sargsyan took part in a discussion of issues pertaining to the development of wiki-based projects in Armenia which was also joined by Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan, Culture Minister Hasmik Poghosyan, the Director of the Intellectual Renaissance Foundation, Hakob Hakobyan, its founder Artur Janibekyan, the President of Wikimedia Hayastan NGO Susanna Mkrtchyan, the Chair of the WMF Board of Trustees, Jan-Bart de Vreede, the Head of WMF Grants and Global South Partnerships, Asaf Bartov, the Manager of Wikipedia Education Program, Anna Koval, GLAM-Wiki Coordinator for Europe Liam Wyatt, the Director of the Intellectual Veratsnund Foundation Marina Sultanyan and project coordinator Armen Martirosyan.

As part of the opening ceremony of the Wikimedia Armenia Office, the participants watched a video on the results of cooperation between the Intellectual Renaissance Foundation and Wikimedia Armenia scientific-educational NGO.

Wikimedia Armenia has been available since February 2005. By the number of entries it is currently fifth across the former Soviet Union coming after Russian, Ukrainian, Kazakh and Lithuanian languages. It is also fifth in the Near East after Farsi, Arabic, Turkish and Hebrew.

Afterwards, the Armenian president visited the National Branch of Mir Intergovernmental TV & Radio Company. According to the governmental decree of June 18 2015, the branch has been allocated 60 million drams to reequip its earth satellite station in Yerevan.

During the tour, Serzh Sargsyan familiarized himself with the company’s technical capabilities, the re-equipment status and the upcoming works, as well as talked to some of the branch employees. The president was introduced to the production of the National Branch of Mir Intergovernmental TV & Radio Company, its volumes, the programs made by the creative team, which introduce Armenia to the Mir audience of about 162 million people. -0-

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18:42 06/19/2015