Arak-29 is an educational and cultural foundation dedicated to promoting
- national renewal
- cultural restoration
- creativity
- prosperity
- global competitiveness
for all Armenians within a collaborative research think and do environment in Armenia.
Arak-29 takes its name from the Armenian for the Book of Proverbs, chapter 29, which speaks of the importance of justice, values, education, vision, charity, deliberation, consultation, and transformative action .
Since its founding in 2002, Arak-29 has undertaken numerous programs and studies. It has
- introduced and spearheaded country competitiveness conferences
- advocated for legal reform
- conducted and trained young professionals to conduct sociological surveys
- initiated and disseminated white papers on a variety of topics including
- diaspora-homeland relations
- church-state relations
- cultural heritage protection
- Armenian cultural identity and globalization
- anti-corruption
- diaspora consumption as a driver of economic development
- the impact of foreign assistance on Armenia’s legal, political and economic development.
Arak-29 has also assisted a wide range of youth programs in the fields of arts, sports, church, and education in and out of Yerevan.
Some of the groups and programs supported by Arak-29 have been the
- Common Ground Program
- Hover Chamber Choir
- Zatik Children’s Home
- Manana Youth Journalists Program
- Narek Men’s Choir
- Yegheknadzor Sports and Spiritual Training Program
- Armenian Volunteer Corps
- BirthrightArmenia
- Kathoghike St. Astvatsatsin Parish
- Makur Yerevan
- Momentum Negotiation Training Program
- Vem
- Economy & Values
together with many other cultural, church and educational programs.
Successfully replicating a teamwork approach, Arak-29 helps incubate, organize, manage and facilitate teams for many cultural projects. The Arak-29 team itself includes musicians, graphic artists, historians, theologians, translators, and computer programmers and draws on additional expertise from the team at Arlex International CJSC. Some of our projects include the following publications and websites
- bilingual edition of Dickens’ Christmas Carol ,
- Sharakan Collection (Armenian Church hymnal) and on-line version
- Badarak on-line Armenian Divine Liturgy with Biblical annotations (with St. Nersess Seminary)
- Primer on Traditional Orthography
- Pilgrims’ Guide to Armenia (with Simatours)
- www.stgregoryofnarek.am ,
- digital Armenian Church breviary and lectionary
- A Course in Modern Western Armenian (with the Armenian Prelacy)
- Get to the Root of It! Cultural Literacy Home & School Materials (with the Armenian Diocese
- Armenian Shakespeare (complete works in Armenian)
- Armenian Etymology (over 1000 Indo-European roots with English cognates)
- Armenian Church Losses during the Genocide database
- Chotki Hayeren dictionary of Yerevan slang
- Orthography Converter
- Bible Parallel Concordance English-Classical Armenian
- Five Language Crestomathy (Cl. Arm., English, Russian, French, Spanish, German) – Life and Teachings of Christ (Gospel passages)
- Eastern Armenian (Classical and Soviet), Western Armenian spell checkers for Open Office
- Armenian Genocide Losses a Century Later
- Narek bilingual Concordance
Thomas J. Samuelian, team leader for these projects, is a linguist, lawyer and senior partner of Arlex International CJSC.
Arak-29 is a registered Republic of Armenia charitable foundation located in Yerevan, Armenia (Registration Certificate No. 286.160.04632, issued by the Ministry of Justice on July 17, 2002). The foundation is governed by a Board of Trustees and managed by its Executive Director. The Board of Trustees consists of Hayk Hakobyan, Armen Galstyan, and Armen Simonyan (Chair). Mr. Karen Varagyan, an economist and legal advisor, serves as Executive Director.