The event titled Armen’ Livres (Armenian Books), which in the last decade was annually organized by the Armenian Cultural House, took place on November 23, 2017 to 26 November, at one of the largest halls of the Pôle Culturel-POC of the Alfortville Township (Paris, France). Each similar event during the last decade hosted an honorable guest individual or a union. This year's honorable guest was the Hamazkayin Association.
At the opening day (Thursday, November 23), the presented books of different types and colors were tastefully arranged according to their topics on more than a dozen large tables. The collection included books in Armenian, French, Turkish, and a small number number of them were in English.
Arax Der Gevorgyan, Director of the Armenian House of Culture opened the official ceremony of the exhibition. She welcomed about a hundred and fifty invited guests, presented the history of the initiative and its success over the years. Then she finished her speech by presenting the day's honorable guest - the Hamazkayin Association. Afterwards, the Chairperson of the Central Executive Board of Hamazkayin Mkrtich Mkrtichian and Mayor of Alfortville Michelle Kershinovitz delivered welcome speeches.
Finally, a video presenting the brief history of Hamazkayin and its current activities, was displayed.
The next day was the disciples' visit day. Many schoolchildren from four Parisian schools (Dprotsasirats, St. Mesrop-G.Arabian, Hamazkayin Targmanchats and Hrant Dink) visited the exhibition. Principal of the Norsikian kindergarten at Arslanian Djemaran, and Pedagogical Adviser of Lala and Ara team, Taline Yahniyan and Vice President of the Hamazkayin Targmanchats School, Hasmik Shahinian gave wide explanations about the Hamazkayin's children's electronic games Lala and Ara to little visitors. The eyes of children glittered with enthusiasm while listening to those explanations. During those days, the youth packed the showroom both in the morning and in the evening.
On Saturday, November 25, Radio AYP broadcasted a live program Cartes sur table ( https://youtu.be/NbwVLvbDz9Y ) from its Alfortville headquarters. Arax Der Gevorgyan, Sosy Hagopian (Armen Livre commissioner), Taline Yahniyan, Mkrtich Yapujyan (Deputy Chair of the Hamazkayin Central Executive Board) and Mkrtich Mkrtichyan answered the questions of broadcaster Vardan Gabrielyan.
In the evening, Mkrtich Mkrtichyan delivered a lecture on Hamazkayin's history and its activities, after which Mkrtich Mkrtichian and Mkrtich Yapunjyan gave exhaustive answers to questions.
On the last day, many hundreds of Hamazkayin members visited the exhibition, bought their books and had an intimate conversation with the authors of the exhibited books.
At the end of December 9-10, a similar event took place at the Hamazkayin Marseille Djemaran, organized by the Parentèses Publishing House.
Correspondent