In our Five-Year Plan launched over a year ago, the Armenian Communities Department committed to communicate better its activities and decisions, enhancing a culture of transparency and accountability. Henceforth, we are making available to the general public – through our website – the list of the grants and scholarships we have given in 2014. Throughout the year, I have also given a number of media interviews to explain our programming approach; these appeared in English, French, Armenian and Turkish. Some of the links are on our website.

It has been a very busy year. Some of the highlights are:

• Restarting our scholarship programmes. We granted one million Euros in scholarships to 177 students, in addition to the emergency scholarships to Syrian-Armenian students studying in Armenia.
• The organisation of a very successful “Armenian Culture Week” in Lisbon, the first ever. With 16 events in eight days, from concerts to exhibitions and conferences, thousands of people in Portugal witnessed the culture and history of our Founder.
• The start of a long term reform process to enhance the teaching of Western Armenian in the diaspora. We began in Lebanon in 2014, and will continue with the Armenian schools in Turkey and France in 2015.
• The launch of several significant projects meant to increase the availability of Armenian in the digital world: the digitisation of the remarkable journal and newspaper collection of the Mekhitarist congregation in Venice and Vienna (the collection starts with the first Armenian newspaper in 1794!); the creation of websites for major diasporan newspapers such as Nor Haratch and Jamanak; and the funding of eight projects selected from our call for proposals for initiatives that use IT to teach language.
• Signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of the Diaspora to augment its activities in the promotion of Western Armenian. This is one side of our engagement with Armenia. The other is support to academic and civil society organisations.

In 2014, we also launched our series of high-level seminars “Armenians in 2115,” with the first gathering in Lisbon in October. We will continue this series, with subsequent seminars being focussed on specific issues. Our intention is to encourage debate about the future, and develop initiatives that strengthen Armenian identity. Two of the gatherings being organised in 2015 are: a conference about IT and Armenian language/culture, whereby needs will be matched by potential funding sources; and a seminar on innovation in the teaching of Armenian in the diaspora that will lead to specific training initiatives we can support.

Of course, these are only a few of the many projects we are supporting. To have a fuller picture, please browse the lists we have just posted; they enumerate all of our funding initiatives. Once the 2014 Foundation’s Annual Report is released, we will also put on our site the section pertaining to our Department, containing further details.

2015 will be just as busy of a year, no doubt. It is a significant year for the Armenians, with the Centennial of the Genocide fast approaching. The Department will continue to do its utmost to support Armenian culture and language, looking ahead but without forgetting the past.

Razmik Panossian