YEREVAN. – The ceremony for the 2013 Significant Contribution to Armenian Preservation awards was held recently in capital city Yerevan.

A total of 158 Armenian organizations and individuals from around ten countries had competed in the respective contest, the Ministry of Diaspora informed.  

The awards ceremony was held for the fifth year, and the number of participants and the geographical scope of the participating countries are growing each year.

The awards competitions were conducted in several categories, and the participants received numerous prizes. 
Some awards recipients, however, transferred their monetary gifts to charitable purposes including the Syrian Armenian Relief Fund, the family of Serhiy Nigoyan—the Ukrainian-Armenian demonstrator who on January 22 had died of gunshot wounds in Downtown Kyiv—, the secondary school of Armenia’s Khndzoresk village, and the “Assistance to the families forcibly deported from Karabakh and the families of fallen soldiers” NGO.  

Numerous other award recipients likewise expressed a wish to transfer their monetary awards to charitable contributions.