The 39th session of the UNESCO General Conference being held in Paris has adopted a decision to include the 150th anniversaries of Komitas and Hovhannes Tumanyan in the UNESCO Calendar of anniversaries of eminent personalities and important events for the 2018-2019 cycle.
The nominations submitted by the Republic of Armenia – the “150th anniversary of Soghomon Soghomonian, known as Komitas Vardapet, composer, ethnomusicologist, music collector, singer (1869-1935)” (with the support of France and Germany), and the “150th anniversary of the birth of Hovhannes Tumanyan, poet, writer, translator (1869-1923)” (with the support of Georgia and Russia) have been approved by the Organization.
Note: Since 1998 twenty-three anniversaries submitted by the Republic of Armenia have been included in the UNESCO Calendar of anniversaries of eminent personalities and important events.
Two anniversaries submitted by the Republic of Armenia were included in the Calendar for the 2016-2017 cycle: the “350th anniversary of the first printed Bible in Armenian by Voskan Yerevantsi,” and the “200th anniversary of the birth of Ivan Aivazovsky (1817-1900).”