As it is known, the All-Armenian Summer Games opening ceremony will take place in Gyumri on August 5. At the moment, organizational work is underway. The Pan-Armenian Summer Games will begin with a parade, which will be organized in the format of the Olympic Games. The Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports, Karen Giloyan, will lead the Parade. Sevak Karapetyan, responsible for the Parade and volunteers of the 8th Pan-Armenian Summer Games, explained: “We do not represent the countries, but some young girl represents each country.
For example, the capital of the 8th Pan-Armenian Summer Games is Gyumri. Gyumri will have its own volunteer, who will walk in front and represent the city, and the delegate athletes will walk behind him. No matter how many countries are involved, all countries will be presented with the same principle. That is exactly the role of volunteers.”
He also informed us that most applications to participate in the Pan-Armenian Summer Games were received from our compatriots in the Russian Federation. In second place are our compatriots living in Turkey. The application period has not ended. The organizers hope that new countries will also be included.
Anna Vardanyan, head of the information center of the World Committee of the Pan-Armenian Games, informed us that massive works are underway, and about 15 thousand Armenians from different parts of the world will be present at the games. “If we expect 5,500 or up to 6,000 participants, accompanied by delegates, parents, relatives, friends, and guests from abroad, then we should expect about 15,000 participants. The experience of the previous games also showed that there were approximately 10,000 people. We will work with everyone individually, which is a huge amount of work,” said Anna Vardanyan.
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To our question: how will Gyumri accommodate so many guests? Where will they stay when there is a shortage of hotels? Is the city ready to welcome them? Our interlocutor answered: “Naturally, this issue was discussed with the regional and city authorities, and in Gyumri, they promised to welcome the guests with proper hospitality. Yes, they said that they will be able to receive so many guests. Yes, Gyumri has a problem with hotels and overnight accommodations, but it is 1.5 hours from Gyumri to Yerevan, and not all delegations will stay in Gyumri.
Yerevan, the regions, and all places are included. As for those who will stay in Gyumri, they have been promised to accommodate them. They will manage to do it if they were housed in Stepanakert in 2019; they will also be accommodated here. There won’t be a problem; the volunteer participants are so excited they are ready to stay in tents. The organizers do not provide details about the show presented at the ceremonial opening of the games, noting that they are a surprise. A creative group deals with these issues; the director is Aramais Hayrapetyan, and the designer is Bagrat Divanyan, who was also included in the previous games.
“Our participants have seen, they know, they already trust his taste, the producer of these works is Virabyan Tigran, who again has experience organizing mass events,” said Anna Vardanyan. She mentioned that the idea of the Pan-Armenian Games is unity; therefore, the slogan is: The Homeland-Diaspora connection, our unity. Sports have increased from 17 to 19 this year; women’s football and futsal have increased.
Nune AREVSHATYAN
