Ministry of Emergency Situations
of the Republic of Armenia

On August 29, in the press-club “Henaran” was held a press- conference on the cooperation between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Armenia and the French NGO “Civil defense without borders”.

The keynote speakers of the press conference were Deputy Director of Rescue Service of the RA MES Major- General Nikolay Grigoryan and chairman of the French NGO “Civil defense without borders”, Adviser to the Minister of Emergency Situations, Colonel Bernard Zhanen.

During the devastating earthquake in 1988, arriving in Armenia, as a volunteer lifeguard, B. Zhanen in subsequent years continued to support the system of emergency situations in our country – both in matters of technical equipment, and in sharing experience and training issues.

- Quite recently we have got 7 cars and equipment for different purposes from France, said N. Grigoryan. The automobiles are terrain vehicles (ATV) and will be sent to the regions. Bernard Zhanen is the best friend of our people and our country. Our cooperation will continue, and in future will be focused on the development of the volunteer movement of rescuers.

B. Zhanen told about the Armenian-French future cooperation:
- We will work in 2 main directions. First, we’ll create a working group, that will deal with the involvement of non-governmental organizations and rural communities in the rescue operations. Secondly, in all provinces will be established volunteer rescue squads.

This is A. Yeritsyan’s, the Minister of Emergency Situations initiative and we gladly agreed to help. The work is extensive, besides the formation of volunteer detachments, we must also deal with the legislative process, volunteers’ training and their uniforms. I have worked with almost all the leaders of the system of emergency situations, but during Mr. Yeritsyan’s tenure our cooperation has become more active and got new breath.

I can say, that the Ministry of Emergency Situations is the best in the territory of CIS countries, which has a crisis management center, that currently cannot afford any similar structure in other countries.

R/S Deputy Director N. Grigoryan noted, that the French movement of volunteer rescuers is one of the best in the world, and their experience will be very useful for us.

At the end of the press-conference, speakers answered to various questions of journalists related to the implementation of projects.