ON MAY 3rd AMBASSADOR JOHN M. EVANS TO BE HONORED WITH HENRY MORGENTHAU AWARD FOR MERITORIOUS PUBLIC SERVICE

DeFacto Agency, Armenia
May 2 2007

On May 3rd, in Cambridge Massachusetts, Ambassador John Marshall Evans
will be presented with the distinguished Henry Morgenthau Award for
Meritorious Public Service. The Award is presented by the Armenian
Assembly of America to a public official, who has demonstrated
exemplary leadership on behalf of the Armenian people and nation.

Grandson of the Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at the time of the
genocide, Henry Morgenthau III will be joined by Samantha Power, the
Pulitzer Prize winning author of "A Problem from Hell: America and
the Age of Genocide" and Professor of Practice of Global Leadership
and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard
University, for this auspices occasion honoring Evans for speaking
the truth.

Ambassador Evans is only the third recipient of the Morgenthau Award.

The first U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Harry Gilmore was the first
recipient on June 1, 1996. President of Armenia Robert Kocharian was
awarded the honor on September 6, 1997.

Ambassador Evans is a true profile in courage. In 2005, while
addressing Armenian-American communities across the country, the
Ambassador re-affirmed the United States record and accurately
described the events that took place from 1915 to 1923 as genocide.

As a result of his public statements, Ambassador Evans’ term of office
was cut short by the Department of State. In addition, the American
Foreign Service Association (AFSA) rescinded its Christian A. Herter
Award for "constructive dissent", which Evans had received for his
proper characterization of the Armenian Genocide. Ambassador Evans
has since retired from the Foreign Service.

"Ambassador Evans is a man of principle and conviction," said Chairman
of the Board of Trustees Hirair Hovnanian. "No one should be penalized
for speaking the truth about the Armenian Genocide, especially a public
official, who has the responsibility of representing the United States
abroad," Hovnanian added. "That is not the message our country should
be sending to the rest of the world, if we are to remain the bastion
of democracy and freedom for people everywhere."