YEREVAN. – Eight-five events aimed at preserving Armenian culture and identity in the diaspora were implemented during the year, acting Minister of Diaspora Mkhitar Hayrapetyan said during a press conference on Friday.

As a result, he said, 17 Sunday schools were established in nine countries.

 “Dozens of events were organized in various Armenian schools working in the diaspora. At the same time, more than 50 thousand books were handed over to various communities,” the acting minister added.

However, Hayrapetyan believes that this is a rather old and not very effective method of working with the diaspora, since the books did not always take into account peculiarities of a certain community,

At the same time, as Hayrapetyan noted, since May 2018, more than 450 families have repatriated to Armenia, and these are only the families that contacted the ministry. Most of the families returned to Armenia from Russia, Iran and the U.S..