Children from afar spend their holidays in Hungary
Armenian children from Nagorno-Karabakh are spending a week-long holiday in Hungary with the support of the government’s Hungary Helps programme, the state secretary for aiding persecuted Christians said on Facebook on Thursday.
In a live-stream from the Zánka children’s camp at Lake Balaton, Tristan Azbej said this was the second year the government funded a week-long summer camp for nearly 100 Armenian children and accompanying adults.
The programme was launched last year at the initiative of Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, to fund “a week of joyful holidays” for children who had fled to Armenia with their families to escape the 30-year conflict in the southern Caucasus, “which has caused much suffering on either side,” Azbej said.
Azbej said that in talking with the children and adults in the camp, he had heard “touching stories of wounds, healing and the hope of peace”. The Azeri-Armenian peace process, which had started recently, was bringing the hope that “the region’s wounds can slowly start to heal,” he said.
The state secretary thanked the programme’s organisers for their work. “We are proud that these children can have an experience of our friendship and the joy of carefree holidays. We hope they return home with beautiful memories and that their future will be more peaceful,” he said.
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