RA Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports Alfred Kocharyan received today the French National Institute of Heritage representatives to summarize the results of the training course exercise entitled "Disaster Management."

The two-day course was intended for specialists in cultural organizations and emergency services. It was held in the Sardarapat Heroic War Memorial Complex to protect museum objects and paper media in the National Library of Armenia. The program is held at the initiative of the RA Ministry of Education and Culture and the French Embassy in Armenia. It is implemented by the "Research Center of Historical and Cultural Heritage" SNOC in collaboration with the French National Institute of Heritage at the Sardarapat Heroic Battle Memorial Complex, the National Museum of Armenian Ethnography and the History of the Liberation Struggle, and the National Library of Armenia.

Deputy Minister Alfred Kocharyan welcomed the guests and thanked them for their practical work and efforts.

"We did vital work together. I am sure our cooperation will continue, and we will also implement the second part of the project. Considering our needs and the experience gained, I am confident that we can develop another interesting project together. Thank you again for all the training; it has been quite effective. We are ready for continuous and stable cooperation and appreciate the support of the French side," Alfred Kocharyan emphasized.

Marie Courcello, head of preventive conservation programs at the Center for Research and Restoration of French Museums (C2RMF), president of the French "Blue Shield" organization, thanked for the reception and emphasized that the successful implementation of the project is the result of close cooperation and long-term work on both sides. "All of us are very satisfied because all our ambitions under this program fully aligned with the actual results. Of course, there is always a need for corrections. Still, this exercise allowed people with two different professions, firefighters and cultural workers, to work together for one goal: to understand how to manage disasters and save cultural values. Together: Naturally, the rescuers do their job, but they often need to learn how to deal with this or that artistic specimen and the cultural workers are not familiar with the difficulties of the rescuers' work.

Astghik Marabyan, head of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Folk Crafts of the RA Ministry of Education and Culture, emphasized that the project's success results from consistent teamwork. "I hope that the exercises will become continuous, and in the future, we will reach the point where our local specialists, as a result of the exchange of experience, will be proactive and will personally transfer the knowledge they have acquired to their colleagues. The involvement of our colleagues from the Ministry of the Interior was also significant to me, which was an unprecedented experience. Thus, a single vision is formed between departments for a common goal, and the work we try to organize and implement becomes more important."

The program, implemented from July 2022 to December 2023, aims to support the processes of protecting the cultural heritage of Armenia, developing the abilities of specialists in the field, and implementing and developing museum policy.

According to Astghik Marabyan, the works that lasted for about a year also put the vital disaster risk management process on institutional foundations. "I am sure that shortly, we will already discuss the mechanisms that should be fixed within the framework of this institutional cooperation."

It should be noted that to implement the project, many meetings, two-year discussions, and negotiations took place between the French National Institute of Heritage and Armenian museums and organizations operating in the field of heritage, which resulted in a two-year cooperation between the two countries in the area of cultural heritage.

About 600,000 euros have been allocated by the French government to implement various conservation measures in the cultural heritage field. Within the framework of this cooperation, 8 events have been implemented since 2022. this is already the 9th meeting. In the first round, special attention was paid to various conferences and trainings in the field of cultural heritage restoration, within the framework of which more than 100 restoration specialists were trained. One of the critical goals of the cooperation is training museum employees in disaster management and exchanging experience. In this context, a theoretical course was held in the summer, and today, the results of the two-day practical exercises are being summarized.

Training on "Disaster Management" within the scope of the course exercise, an environment was created in the Sardarapat Heroic War Memorial Complex, where the scenario of the supposed fire was acted out. The evacuated "subjects" were moved to another site, where theoretical knowledge related to first care was transferred to the program participants. Like the previous courses, this course exercise was highlighted by exchanging experiences with French partners, studying one of the best European practices, and considering the prospects of localizing it.

During the meeting, the French side also expressed readiness to continue cooperation and implement the project's second phase.