This year as well a group of young Armenians from Tbilisi decided to spend two weeks of their summer vacation in the scout camp, located near the Lermontov village in the Lori region in Armenia. This is now the tenth year the camp has been organized within the framework of the AGBU youth projects. For the past years, young Armenians of Tbilisi have been participating in the scout camps with pleasure and preferred to spend their summer vacation in the valley.

Early in the morning on July 11, 2017, with the blessings of the Primate of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, His Grace Bishop Vazgen Mirzakhanyan, a group of young Armenians from Tbilisi, 10 boy and girl activists, guided by Director of the Cultural Department of the Armenian Diocese in Georgia, Levon Chidilyan traveled to the Antranik Scout Camp. Young activists from the Youth Department of the Diocese spent 12 days at the Antranik Scout Camp, under the leadership of Boris Mzikyan, enjoying the camping.

This stage of the scout camp held as part of the AGBU youth programs gathered scouts representing the groups from Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, Tbilisi, and Javakheti. July 13th marked the launch of the camping event. The Primate of the Diocese of Gougark of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, His Grace Archbishop Sebouh Chouldjian gave his blessings during the opening ceremony of the scout camp.

The scout camps serve as a wonderful opportunity for young Diaspora Armenians to gather in the mother homeland, communicate with their peers, overcome hardships together and share their impressions around a bonfire at the end of the day. The scout camp was fun and interesting. The campers began their days by exercising and raising the flag, after which they had breakfast, cleaned their tents and the area, participated in excursions, listened to lectures and played games. In the evenings, they had dinner, sang songs and performed dances around a bonfire and raised the flag again. Many young people from Tbilisi were visiting the camp for the second, third or even the fourth time because of the incredible and joyful atmosphere that the camp provides.

For Ani and Armine Ghushchyan, Boris Mzikyan and others, the camping event served as a great opportunity for the friends to meet again and have fun in the thick forest.

The camp’s director Raymond Harutyunyan praised the young Georgian-Armenians for their active participation.

During their days in Armenia, the campers visited Goshavank, Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial, the Yerablur, Yerevan’s “Hayordats Tun”.

The scouts bid each other farewell with the hope of seeing each other again next year.