YEREVAN, OCTOBER 29, NOYAN TAPAN. The 500th anniversary of Armenian book-printing will be solemnly marked in 2012 in Armenia. RA President Serzh Sargsyan will head the jubilee governmental commission on organizing the festive events. As Levon Ananian, the Chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia, reported at the October 28 press conference, within four years they have a possibility to prepare well and to implement all programs that need to be worked out. At the same time he said that he is going to submit his proposals at the jubilee commission's second sitting to be held in January 2009. In particular, the Chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia proposes working out a national reading program, which, according to L. Ananian, will be an important step to overcome the reading crisis. It is also planned to submit for discussion the bill On Book-Publishing Sphere being in the RA National Assembly for several years. Besides, L. Ananian proposes creating a University of Translators in Armenia, which will enable to present works of Armenian classics, modern Armenian writers in different languages of the world, as well as to translate works of orld classics and modern world writers into Armenian. As the Chairman of the Union of Writers of Armenia evaluated it, first of all bookstores need to be opened in all regions of the country for book-publishing to develop. According to L. Ananian, much attention should be also paid to libraries. "Every published book should be given to libraries. However, it is impossible to give a book published in 400-500 copies to several hundred libraries functioning in the country. These are important problems that need to be given a solution on the threshold of the 500th anniversary of Armenian book-printing," L. Ananian emphasized.

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