President receives minister of education and culture of Saxony-Anhalt, Stephan Dorgerloh

President Serzh Sargsyan received today Stephan Dorgerloh, minister of education and culture of Saxony-Anhalt.

Welcoming the guest to our country, Armenia’s president noted that Armenia greatly appreciates Mr. Dorgerloh’s pro-Armenian activities and his personal contribution to raising the awareness of people for the Armenian Genocide. Serzh Sargsyan stressed that Germany is a crucial partner and friend of Armenia, and the consistent development of interstate relations between the two countries holds an important place in Armenia’s foreign policy agenda.

The president emphasized the fact of holding numerous events to mark the Armenian Genocide Centennial in Germany this year. Serzh Sargsyan stated that the Armenian people attach great importance to the position of German official circles on the condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, particularly to the speech made by President Joachim Gauck on April 23 at Berlin Cathedral. Serzh Sargsyan also placed special importance on Saxony-Anhalt’s and Minister Stephan Dorgerloh’s personal support for holding the events to mark the Armenian Genocide Centennial.

At the meeting, the interlocutors expressed the hope that the dynamic relationship between Armenia and the German State of Saxony-Anhalt will add a new dimension and emphasis to Armenian-German cooperation.

Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister of Education and Culture Stephan Dorgerloh thanked the president for the warm welcome and for the recognition of his activities. During the meeting, Minister Dorgerloh presented the RA president with a German methodical guidebook on school textbooks about the Armenian Genocide which, according to him, is also available online. The guidebook will help the region’s teachers present the topic of genocide via respective texts, photos and auxiliary materials. “We must tell people what happened in reality, tell the truth about the Armenian Genocide,” underscored Minister Stephan Dorgerloh, presenting the president also with a collection of compositions on the Armenian Genocide written by German and Armenian pupils and with a publication of Siamanto’s works translated into German.

At the meeting, the parties touched upon inter-parliamentary relations. They expressed satisfaction with the fact that those relations keep on developing as a result of active reciprocal visits.

The interlocutors also attached importance to Armenian-German cultural exchanges and close cultural cooperation, which, according to them, will contribute to strengthening the mutual of recognition of the two friendly peoples. The RA president and Minster Dorgerloh stressed the need to implement advanced German language teaching programs for which, according to the minister, they already have some particular ideas.