On June 1, at initiative and organization of the Armenian Embassy in Austria in the monastery of Mekhitarist Congregation in Vienna exhibition entitled “Armenia – Austria: official contacts in 1918-1921” and dedicated to the Centennials of heroic May Battles and the Republic of Armenia was opened.

The Exhibition was represented by a collection of newspapers, letters, notes verbale, reports and books preserved in the state archives of both Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Austria and in the Library of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna, as well as the collection of newspapers published in that period in the Republic of Armenia, Artsakh and the Armenian Diaspora.

A number of documents found in the Austrian State Archive refers mainly to the period of June-September 1918, and covers the correspondence between the delegation of the Republic of Armenia to the Paris Peace Conference, and the diplomatic missions of the Republic of Armenia to Berlin and to Vienna - from one side, and the Austrian-Hungarian Foreign Ministry and the Austrian-Hungarian diplomatic missions abroad - from another side.

The Armenian side, according to the published documents, had set a goal to persuade the ally of the Ottoman Empire – Austria-Hungary, to recognize the newly-independent Republic of Armenia and to help the Armenian people to gain a more favorable position in the peace process aiming at the elimination of consequences of the First World War.

Part of these documents is publicized for the first time and reveals the less known inter-state contacts between Armenia and Austria. It emphasizes the valuable influence of the clergy of Mekhitarist Congregation in this process, as well as the protection of the interests of the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian citizens in Vienna.

The exhibition is open for public visitors at the Museum of the Mekhitarist Congregation of Vienna until the end of this year.