On July 5, at the initiative of the Armenian Embassy and with the support of the Union of Armenians of Lithuania, the opening ceremony of the plaque of the Armenian translation of the Užupis Constitution took place which was attended by Liana Ruokytė-Jonsson, Lithuanian Culture Minister and Indrek Saar, Minister of Culture of Estonia, who was in Lithuania on a working visit. The motto of the event was "For our rights".

Ambassador Tigran Mkrtchyan delivered a speech at the event, noting that the selection of July 5 as the date of the event was not accidental as in Armenia it is marked as Constitution Day.

Then the Ambassador presented the rich constitutional traditions of the Armenian nation recalling King Vachagan, who created a Canonical Constitution in the 5th century, the 12-13th centuries Codexes of Mkhitar Gosh and Smbat the Constable, the drafting of the Snare of Glory for a future independent Armenia by the representatives of the Indian-Armenian community in 1773-1783.  

In the words of Tigran Mkrtchyan, those constitutional traditions have had an important influence over the entire course of the national liberation movement. That struggle culminated in the declaration of an independent First Republic of Armenia in 1918, the Centennial of which we, along with Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians and others, are celebrating these days.

Romas Lileikis and Sakalas Gorodeckis, the President and the Prime Minister of Užupis, also delivered speeches during the event and touched upon the Armenian presence in Lithuania. They underlined that the existence of the Armenian version of the Užupis Constitution makes the representation of the text more complete thus being an additional incentive for Armenian tourists to visit Užupis.

The Armenian translation of Užupis Constitution was read out by the translator, famous Armenian writer Vahagn Grigoryan.  The Armenian translation of the text of the Constitution was edited by Ruben Melikyan, Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Artsakh.

The event was attended by Ambassadors accredited in Lithuania, diplomats, representatives of the executive and judicial bodies, journalists, cultural figures, representatives of the Armenian community.

Reference note: Užupis (in translation: «The other side of river») is the part of old city of Vilnius city with territory of 60 hectares and population of about 7000.

On 1 April, 1997 Užupis was symbolically self-proclaimed as an independent republic - the Republic of  Užupis, with its own flag, president, government, anthem, money, constitution, etc. On the wall of Užupis Constitution the translations of the Constitution in different languages are represented. The Armenian is the 31st language that the Constitution has been translated into.