THE REPUBLICAN OLYMPIAD "WHO KNOWS GRABAR BETTER" TOOK PLACE IN YSU

The purpose of the Olympiad was to test and strengthen the students' knowledge of Grabar, and to increase interest in ancient Armenian, as well as the historical development of the Armenian language.

Unlike previous years, this year there were two tasks and nominations for the Olympiad. For the first category, the participants translated the text into Grabar, and for the second category, they wrote an essay in Grabar with the title "My Nairian country Armenia" chosen on the spot.

During the competition, the participants were provided with personal tablets with the possibility to use only Grabar's online dictionary.

This year, students not only from YSU but also many from YSU's Ijevan branch, Kh.Abovyan State Pedagogical University, V. Brusov State University, Gevorgyan Theological Seminary, Artsakh State University, as well as public educational institutions, took part in the Olympiad.

Head of YSU Chair of Armenian Language History and General Linguistics, Ph.D., Professor Anna Abajyan, emphasizing the participation of schoolchildren, noted, "The interesting thing is that the participating schoolchildren of YSU A. Shahinyan special physics-mathematical school and the college students of Yerevan M. Heratsi State Medical University are students of the natural science and mathematics stream and not humanities."

Vrezh Nalbandyan, a 12th-grade student of the YSU A. Shahinyan special school of Physics and Mathematics decided to participate and try his hand at the Olympiad after learning about it.

"I learned Grabar thanks to the Priest Ashot Safaryan, the spiritual pastor of the Saint Astvatsatsin Church of the 1st of Nor Nork micro-district of the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese. This Olympiad is a wonderful opportunity to test my knowledge and identify gaps to correct them and improve my level of language proficiency,” he said.

The Student Scientific Society of the Faculty of Armenian Philology is also one of the organizers of the Olympiad. Emma Noninyan, president of SSS, noted that she has been involved in the organizational work of the Olympiad for two years.

Emphasizing the role of Grabar and the holding of similar Olympiads, she noted. "There is interest in the Grabar Olympiad, and we are happy to have the opportunity to contribute to raising the level of Grabar knowledge through competitions like this."

It should be noted that the YSU Chair of Armenian Language History and General Linguistics, the Faculty’s SSS, the “Classical School” Foundation, and the Ararat Patriarchal Diocese organized the Olympiad.

Results will be summarized within the next week.