(March 16, 2014-Alexandria):A major celebration was held at the BA Lecture Hall today to mark the 170th anniversary of the death of Egypt's first Armenian Foreign Minister, Boghos Bey Youssefian. In the first part of the symposium, Dr. Mohamed Refaat Al-Imam, Professor of History at the Faculty of Arts, Damanhour University, presented the history of Armenians in Egypt, the extent of cooperation between the Armenian and Egyptian people, as well as their participation in political life throughout history, at the BA Writing and Calligraphy Studies Center, in cooperation with the Armenian Orthodox Patriarchate in Cairo. The symposium, titled "Boghos Bey Youssefian through historical writings," was attended by Major General Tarek El Mahdy, Governor of Alexandria, and the Armenian Ambassador to Egypt, Dr. Armen Melkonian, in the presence of Dr. Azza El-Kholy, Head of the BA Academic Sector, and Dr. Armen Mazloumian, in addition to a group of academic professors to present a set of academic papers. In the second part of the celebration, researcher Ahmed Mansour, Deputy Director of the Armenian Inscriptions and Calligraphy Center, delivered his speech in which he emphasized that the Israeli occupation transferred many of the manuscripts and monuments found in the Sinai Peninsula to Israel as soon as they entered, stressing that Israeli scientific missions started stealing Egyptian antiquities and heritage after the second day of their entry into the land of the Turquoise, which was part of his talk on ancient writings in Egypt. Mansour added that the various manuscripts that were found are "conclusive proof" of the Egyptians' good treatment of their guests, stressing that this is evidence of their safe and stable life. Dr. Iman Amer, professor of modern and contemporary history at the Faculty of Arts, Cairo University, delivered a speech on the history of the Suez Canal in the Egyptian consciousness by presenting its various sources of modern and contemporary history and addressing the press, cinema and novels in the way they present history and witness the digging of the Suez Canal through the articles of leading journalists at that time, who recorded the epic of the Egyptian people in digging the Suez Canal and its importance to the Egyptian people after digging it with blood and sweat. At the end of the celebration, some attendees commented on the issue of the massacres carried out by Turkey against Armenians in 1915, and some called for opening the file that threatens the Turks and prevents Turkey from entering the European Union if these massacres are recognized by Egypt and its neighbors. The closure of Cairo University's Department of Armenian Studies, which was closed during the Brotherhood era, was also raised during the seminar, with Imam saying in statements that the department was closed under the dictates of Turkey, and one of the attendees demanding that the department be opened again.