www.SaveMelkonian.org has an online petition to lobby the government officials of Cyprus to join the fight to keep the Melkonian school open. Please join us and send your request to the Cypriot officials.
There are two version of it - one is for the nationals of Cyprus, and the other one if for non-Cypriots. They both go to the same officials and the text is almost identical.
Of course, if you want to send these petitions by yourself, I have posted the emails of the President, Foreign minister, and the Education Minister a few blog entries below.
Please visit and help out the Cypriot Armenians and the Melkonian alumni. We cannot afford to lose one more Armenian landmark in Diaspora.
It's amazing that Hay Tad can come up with $40 Million for "Genocide Recognition" but when it comes to something that may actually be positive like coming up with $1 Million or so to run this school it leaves it to it's own resources like stupid write-in campaigns.
ReplyDeleteCongratuations, the biggest victory yet awaits the Armenian Diaspora in it's celebration of the negative calamity ("Armenian genocide")in the US COngress while schools like this will continue to shut down.
Hey, what does it matter anyway? Since there are no Armenian Youths to go to these schools while everyone is busy getting there Visa to escape abroad.
There were quite a few kids from Armenia when the school was open. There were kids that were earthquake survivors from Spitak and Gyumri. There were other kids from the rest of Armenia that were paying tuition.
ReplyDeleteBut the majority of the kids were from Diaspora - Bulgaria, Ethiopia, USA, Honk Kong and other places.
That's good information, so the school plays an important social function also - educating disadvantaged kids or others who may have experienced hardship. And it gives Diaspora kids a sense of identity to them if they from places where there isn't a large number of Armenians. Keeping a school like this open is a no-brainer.
ReplyDeleteSchool was there to establish long term, personal close ties between diaspora communities, Armenia and Artsakh in real and practical way. (They were also kids from Artsakh.) I guess AGBU is not interested in those ties, they are happy with at most once a year Armenia-Diaspora conferences or Bazeh type campings which do not produce any true results.
ReplyDeleteAs a Melkoniantsi I know that wherever I go I will find a Melkoniantsi who will be like a brother or sister to me regardless of age or graduation year.