On Sunday morning, June 17th, 2018, the interschool competition of the Educational-Armenological and the Khatchig Babigian Fund took place at the Catholicosate of Cilicia. Out of 122 participants in the following three categories: Armenian language and literature, Armenian history, culture and religion, and poetry reciting,  33 students received awards.

Mr. Jirayr Tanielian, the head of the Educational-Armenological department, welcomed the guests and reflected on the competition by providing a brief statistics on the rate of the participation and the awards.

Before calling the awardees to the stage to receive their prizes from His Holiness Aram I, Mr. Tanielian invited Carol Babigian, one of the daughters of Khatchig Babigian, to address the audience. Carol congratulated the participants and the awardees, commended the students to pursue their dreams and promised to support the realization of their dreams, stating that the success of each Armenian student is the success of  Armenians as a whole.

The ceremony was concluded with His Holiness Aram I’s pontifical message. He congratulated the efforts of the Fund and the Department in working with the Lebanese-Armenian schools towards preserving the Armenian identity. He underlined the significant role of the Armenian schools in the formation of the rising generations, and stated that in addition to the Armenian Church, the Armenian School has always been the protector of the Armenian Heritage.  

During the ceremony a short cultural program took place during which Hrag Mamigonian recited Antranig Dzarougian’s “Promise to Ararat” (Oukhd Arardi).