YEREVAN, OCTOBER 5, ARMENPRESS. Russian astronaut Anton Shkaplerov is expected to arrive to Yerevan tomorrow evening to bring the state flag of Armenia and the flag of Yerevan which were aboard the MIR International Space Station for 195 days.

The astronaut will arrive to Armenia at the invitation of Hrachya Poghosyan, an Armenian philanthropist based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Poghosyan invited Shkaplerov to take part in the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of rebirth of his native Agarak village.

On October 7, the astronaut will ceremonially hand over the flags to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

It was Hrachya Poghosyan himself who organized the initiative on sending the flags to a space travel on the occasion of the 2800th anniversary of Yerevan and the 100th anniversary of the First Republic of Armenia.

Numerous events, including the inauguration of a sewing plant at the proposal of the PM, the grand opening of a new Ararat 73 plaza, and others, are planned to take place on October 7 in Agarak at the efforts of Poghosyan’s charitable foundation.

A robotics class will be inaugurated in the public school of Agarak. The class will be named after the first human in space, astronaut Yuri Gagarin.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan