The Director of Matenadaran, Ara Khzmalyan, recently met in Geneva with Charles Personnaz, the Director of the French National Institute of Heritage, and Valerie Frelan, the Executive Director of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Zones (ALIF). During the meeting, Charles Personnaz handed in an official invitation for Matenadaran restoration specialists to receive training in France. This agreement was initially reached during a meeting held in Paris in November 2024.
Ara Khzmalyan expressed gratitude for the invitation and highlighted the reforms and achievements in the restoration in 2024. Notable developments included the establishment of a laboratory for biochemical research on manuscripts, the acquisition of advanced equipment, the creation of positions by the Science Committee of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, and Sports of the Republic of Armenia for training new personnel, the establishment of a restoration paper workshop, and the support for projects involving manuscripts and archival documents from Artsakh, aided by the U.S. Embassy in Armenia. Additionally, he mentioned the restoration of manuscript heritage from Erbil (Iraq) with the support of UNESCO. Khzmalyan emphasized that these comprehensive reforms aim to position Matenadaran as a coordinating institution for international manuscript heritage restoration.
Valerie Frelan expressed readiness to support the implementation of this initiative and to collaborate on creating a laboratory for the restoration and study of Matenadaran’s collection of Arabic script manuscripts.
Future meetings will take place in April and the autumn as part of the international seminar “The Faces of Memory,” which will be held at Matenadaran. The meeting became possible through the initiative of Hasmik Tolmajyan, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Switzerland.