MEDAL OF NANSEN TO RAFFI HOVANNISIAN
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| 15:55:02 | 15-06-2005 | Politics |
Raffi Hovannisian, lead of the party “Heritage”, has been awarded
the golden medal of Fridtjof Nansen and the certificate by the Nansen
fund. Executive director of the Fund of the great humanist and winner
of the Nobel Prize for Peace, Souren Movsisyan gave Mr. Hovannisian
the medal “for establishing social, political and humanitarian
principles and for the activity directed to the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide”.
The awarding ceremony was to take place in the hall of the Yerevan
State Economic University to secure a large auditory of students but
on the last minute the Students’ Council cancelled the decision
of the rector and prohibited to organize the ceremony in the
University. Raffi Hovannisian reminded that it was not the first
case. A suchlike incident took place in 1993 when he was to make a
speech in the Yerevan State University. On the last moment not only
the speech was cancelled, but also the access of his proponents was
prohibited to the University. Anyway, the ceremony took place, and
the leader of the party “Heritage” received his medal in the Armenian
Center for National and International Studies.
“This is the first time I have ever been awarded a medal”, mentioned
Mr. Hovannisian in his thanksgiving speech and called the young
people to tale the initiative “For the fair and honest future of
Armenia”, not to stand forgery and to struggle for a change of
authorities. The youth sector of the party announced that they will
soon start a collection of signatures demanding from the authorities to
give Raffi Hovannisian a civic registration from 1991. Let us remind
you that Mr. Hovannisian received civic registration only in 2003,
having applied for it in 1991.