On May 17, 2019, a regular meeting of the “Socio-psychological Assistance for Syrian-Armenians” project of Aleppo Compatriotic Charitable Organization (Aleppo-NGO) took place. Dzovig Magarian-Baitarian, Co-Founder and Vice President of Aleppo-NGO, led the meeting titled “Getting Acquainted with Our Values,” presenting the history of the 100^th anniversary of Yerevan State University.

The government of the Republic of Armenia and politician Sirakan Tigranyan established “Yerevan State University” on May 16, 1919. The university was officially opened on January 31, 1920, in a grand ceremony held in Alexandropol. Initially, the university was located in Alexandropol. Professor Yuri Ghambaryan was appointed as the first rector of the university and invited many prominent lecturers from abroad to join the faculty, including Hakob Khambaryan, Manuk Abeghian, Ashkharbek Kalantar, Stepan Malkhasyan and others. In 1921, the university was relocated to Yerevan, on 52 Abovyan Street, and later to A. Manukyan Street.

The second topic of the meeting was social networking, with particular attention paid to Facebook. Vania Garachian highlighted positive and negative aspects of social networks. In addition to presenting the history of the creation of Facebook, she explained how to create one’s own pages, establish contact with relatives and friends, and follow interesting pages.

As a reminder, Aleppo-NGO’s  “Social-psychological Assistance to Syrian Refugees” program is organized free of charge. The aim of the meetings is to provide support to those who lived through the conflict in Syria and continue to struggle with psychological side effects. The program’s mission is to assist in survivors’ rehabilitation and help them reintegrate into Armenian civil life.

The meetings feature lectures by priests and various speakers. Meetings take place every Friday, at 16:00, at the Aleppo-NGO office. The address is 11 Northern Avenue, -1 floor (entrance located on Abovyan street).