The Deputy Director of the Institute for Armenian Studies of YSU Mher Hovhannisyan visited Lebanon on March 22 by the invitation of the Lebanon Regional Committee of Hamazkayin Armenian Educational and Cultural Society. The purpose of the visit was to represent distance-learning program "Issues of History of Armenia" to the representatives of educational institutions of the Armenian community of Lebanon, to link YSU and local Armenian schools, to implement educational and methodological work related to the teaching of Armenian history in schools.  

During his visit to Lebanon in autumn of 2013, Hovhannisyan made some observations in the Armenian educational field of Lebanon, and it turned out that there is a need to train Armenian specialists, as well as to prepare new ones. Taking into account the problems of distance, time and expenses of the process heads of IAS decided to start armenological educational phase development program first in Lebanon applying to distance-learning system. Shortly thereafter, distance-learning program “Issues of History of Armenia” was developed by the efforts of historians of IAS and YSU Faculty of History. 

On March 25 the presentation on IAS distance-learning program “Issues of History of Armenia” took place in Beirut. According to the agreement signed in Lebanon with YSU, Hamazkayin Lebanon Regional Committee assumed the responsibility of organizational work connected with the program.  By the efforts of Committee chairman Hakob Ladoyan the program had his first students. The third-month distance-learning program will kick-off in Libanon from April 14. 

On March 26 Deputy Director of IAS Mher Hovhannisyan met the representatives of the Armenian educational sphere of Lebanon at the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in Lebanon for discussing the possible formation of the partnership between Yerevan State University and Armenian schools of Lebanon. Armenian Ambassador Ashot Kocharyan welcomed the partnership between the two sides and expressed hope that it would be possible to achieve tangible results in a short time. Partnership strengthened over the next few days during Hovhannisyan’s meetings with the Lebanese educational institutions.  

IAS Deputy Director expressed hope that the educational initiatives between the Armenian community institutions of Lebanon and IAS will be not only successful but also have their continuation in other Armenian communities around the world.