YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 13, ARMENPRESS. Currently about 200 Armenians live in New Zealand. They are mainly from Iraq, Iran, Lebanon and partly from Armenia. The local Armenians mostly live in Auckland and Wellington cities. The Armenian Union of New Zealand operates since 1996 which aims at preserving the Armenian identity and the Armenian upbringing of children.

Head of the Armenian Union Nubar Yaghubian told Armenpress that they spare no efforts for preserving the Armenian identity. “The Armenian community of New Zealand is small and scattered. The Armenian school was operating since 1996, but it closed due to lack of new students. The preservation of the Armenian language is a major issue. There are mixed marriages. At the moment the community makes efforts to re-open the Armenian Sunday school in Auckland”, Nubar Yaghubian said, adding that they try to keep contact with Armenia for organizing the educational processes. Online training for teachers is being organized. When the school is re-opened, the classes will also be online so that the Armenians living in other cities of New Zealand will be able to join. Specialists from Armenia will also join during the online classes.

The Armenian community celebrates the holidays connected with Armenia, as well as the remembrance days. Every year events are being organized dedicated to Armenia’s Independence, the Army Day and etc. Commemoration events are being held on the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Despite being small in number, the local Armenians are actively engaged in different spheres. There are leading doctors, teachers, banking and IT field specialists among them.

In line with the preservation of the Armenian identity, the Armenian community also tries to make Armenia more recognizable within the public through various measures.

“Because of the small community, few people know about Armenia. We are trying to invite the local people as much as possible to our events. We have a Facebook page where we post the list of events, as well as information about Armenia”, he said.

A special attention is paid to the process of spreading the smell and taste of the Armenian cuisine. Quite often the Armenian women cook and sell Armenian dishes. Nubar Yaghubian noted that the people of New Zealand have started to highly appreciate the Armenian dishes after testing them.