Stepanavan residents celebrate town's anniversary

Residents of one of Armenia's oldest towns, Stepanavan, are celebrating the town's birthday.

Celebrations are attended by hundreds of Stepanavan residents most of them holding flags and balloons with emotions running high on the streets.

Stepanavan used be called Lore, and then Jalaloghli. It is now 200 years since the town was named Jalalogli, but the town itself is older than that.

Present day Stepanavan was included in Tashir-Dzoraget Kingdom founded in the mid 10 century by Kurikyan princes who descended from Bagration Dynasty.

The capital city of this kingdom was the town of Lore or Lori. The ruins of the town are resting about 4-5 km far from today's Stepanavan.

In 1810 David Hasan Jalalyan - a descendent of the influential family of Hasan Jalalyan from Artsakh - renamed Lore into Jalalogli as he came and settled there.

Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan, who is on a tour to the northern provinces of the country, also participated in the celebrations.