Armenian Assembly of America
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MEDIA ALERT
April 13, 2007
CONTACT: Karoon Panosyan
E-mail: kpanosyan@aaainc.org

Re: Assembly Expresses Concern over Exhibition ‘Lessons from Rwanda’ Due
to Turkish Interference

Washington, DC – The Armenian Assembly this week sent a letter of
concern regarding the postponement of a UN exhibit on the Rwanda
Genocide, ‘Lessons from Rwanda,’ due to an unwarranted interference by
the mission of Turkey to the United Nations over a reference to the
Armenian Genocide. The letter was sent to UN Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public
Information Kiyotaka Akasaka.

In the letter, Assembly Executive Director Bryan Ardouny expressed
disappointment with the suspension of the exhibit, which included a
description of the Armenian Genocide as a prototype of the international
crimes requiring concerted response and prevention attributed to Raphael
Lemkin, who authored the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment
of the Crime of Genocide.

The Assembly also applauded the decision of the exhibit’s organizers to
continue to resist the removal of the reference to the Armenian Genocide
as a matter of principal and urged the UN support of the initial exhibit
without qualifications.

Attached is the full text of the Assembly’s letter to the UN Secretary
General which was also sent to the Under-Secretary-General for
Communications and Public Information:

April 11, 2007

The Hon. Ban Ki-moon
Secretary General
United Nations
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Phone: (212) 963-1234
Fax: (212) 963-4879

Ref: Postponement of the exhibition ‘Lessons from Rwanda’

Excellency,

On behalf of the Armenian Assembly of America, an NGO with Special
Consultative Status at the United Nations since 1999, I am writing to
express my deepest concern over the postponement of a UN exhibit on the
Rwanda Genocide due to unwarranted interference by the mission of Turkey
to the United Nations.

Aegis Trust, the organizer of the exhibit, is to be commended for taking
the initiative to share the lessons of Rwanda, and of genocide in
general, as the recurrence of this crime against humanity remains a
global issue.

I am, therefore, particularly dismayed to learn the exhibit was
suspended over a reference to the Armenian Genocide attributed to
Raphael Lemkin, the very author of the UN Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, who described the Armenian
Genocide as a prototype of the international crimes requiring concerted
response and prevention. This act of censorship undermines the very
credibility of the UN commitment to responding to and preventing
genocide.

Genocide prevention is contingent on the ability of the international
community to properly acknowledge and draw lessons from past genocides,
to ensure that future situations with the potential of leading to such
new crimes are identified early and prevented.

Amnesia, selectivity and denial corrupt that effort, and disregard the
standards of morality and political wisdom guiding this search for
improved mechanisms and capabilities for collective action to prevent,
and prosecute genocide.

In recent years, interventions in Kosovo and Bosnia helped arrest ethnic
cleansing in the Balkans, bringing stability and rehabilitation to the
peoples in that region. The international response to Kosovo and Bosnia,
however, came largely as a result of the bitter lesson learned in
Rwanda, where the tragic inaction of the world community resulted in
some of the most heinous crimes committed against innocent populations.

The failure to stop the Armenian Genocide in the early part of the 20th
century emboldened the Nazis two decades later to proceed with their
plans for the ‘Final Solution’, leading to the Holocaust.

The Armenian Genocide is a tragedy of seminal importance to the modern
knowledge on, and understanding of, the phenomenon of genocide. The
Armenian Assembly, therefore, applauds the decision of the organizers of
the exhibit to continue to resist, as a matter of principle, removing
the reference to the Armenian Genocide.

We similarly urge you to support the exhibit as initially approved,
without qualifications.

Sincerely,

Bryan Ardouny
Executive Director

The Armenian Assembly is the largest Washington-based nationwide
organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian
issues. It is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

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