VAHAN HOVHANNISIAN AWARDED FRITJOF NANSEN MEDAL

Yerkir.am
May 19, 2006

Natioanal Assembly Vice-speaker and Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF) Bureau member Vahan Hovhannisian was awarded Friday a Fritjof
Nansen gold medal for public humanitarian activities and active
involvement in Armenian Genocide recognition process.

Bestowing the medal, Felix Bakhchinian, chairman of the Fritjof
Nansen Foundation, Hovhannisian was awarded the medal not only as a
politician but also as an intellectual and archeologist.

Hovhannisian, in turn, said the Armenian society sees the importance
of the Genocide recognition. “But I cannot consider me as the real
owner of this medal, it is for my part of the huge work the ARF Bureau
has been doing,” Hovhanisian said. “That enormous work is not for
only one person, or one body. It is the work of the Hay Dat offices
scattered around the world, of our compatriots and now the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs.”

The Fritjof Nansen Foundation was established in Moscow in 1994,
in 2002, it moved to Armenia. About 100 people have been awarded the
medal during the 12 years of its existence.