YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 22, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan on September 19 visited the construction site of the old building of the the Ancient Manuscripts Institute - Matenadaran after Mesrop Mashtots. A preliminary sum of 10 million dollars is being allocated by the Moscow Investment Construction Company headed by Sergei Hambartsumian for construction of an annex to occupy an area of 12,100 square meters. S. Hambartsumian stated that the idea of financing the construction of a new annex of the Matenadaran arose after Serzh Sargsyan's appeal to businessmen of the Diaspora. The design's architect is Arthur Meschian, while the idea of building an annex is not a new one: the first design was developed as long ago as 1987-1988 by Armpromproject Institute at A. Meschian's architectural studio. The construction began in 1988 but remained incompleted after the 1988 earthquake. In 2007 a new design statement was prepared which became the continuation of the previous design. By the design, the main buildling will continue to be the dominant one and the new annex will not be seen from Mashtots Avenue. In case of constructing a new annex, the total area of show-rooms will increase four-fold: the main building currently occupies 3,300 square meters. The design envisages allocating areas for a book depository, a manuscript house, an archive with its reading halls, another two reading halls, a virtual Matenadaran hall, a restoration and modelling unit, a room for researchers, a computer unit, a 240-seat multifunction auditorium, labs, an Armenology center, a publishing-house and a printing-house, as well as photographic labs. According to the director of the Matenadaran Hrachia Tamrazian, the project is a big charitable program, which is the biggest scientific and cultural one in recent decades. He said that construction of the new building will allow to turn the Matenadaran into the largest center on Armenology and medieval studies of international importance, which will have modern equipment. "It also solves the problem of alternation of generations in science, which is the most urgent problem of Armenology," H. Tamrazian said, adding that the construction of the new annex will allow to create 150 jobs and double the scientific staff of the Matenadaran over a year. "Stormy are fruitful years are awaiting us," he noted. In response to a reporter's question about whether the project is ambitious or necessary, Arthur Meschian replied: "Let's go to the book depository, the maniscript house and the restoration unit and see in what conditions the employees work, and this will be the answer to your question. Important work is being done... the number of whose who prevent it is quite great and organized, while we need helpers and not impediments."

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